VINTAGE POST WW2 YUGOSLAVIA ORDER OF NATIONAL MERIT MEDAL BADGE 3rd CLASS #1094

Offered is an original Yugoslavia Order of National Merit. Features a 46 mm wide circular silver and silver-gilt rayed order; the face with a five-pointed silver-gilt star with long and short doubly bifurcated radiant rays between the arms, the full-length silver figure of a soldier centrally, a rifle over his right shoulder, a standard in his left hand; the reverse plain, marked ‘III’ and with maker’s mark and silver hallmark, numbered ‘1094’; this being a very early award piece.

The Order of National Merit was instituted on 12 June 1945 in three classes by the A.V.N.O.J. (Antifašističko Vijeće Narodnog Oslobođenja Jugoslavije = Anti-Fascist Council of National Liberation of Yugoslavia), de facto government of Yugoslavia at the end of World War II, to be awarded to those who distinguished themselves in the struggle for liberation and for merit in securing and organising the Yugoslav government and army. A decree of 1955 extended its award for achievement in the economic, cultural and social spheres.