LaCroix wrote:Austria basically used two ribbon patterns, yellow-black and red-white, for almost all of their medals. So chances are high you got something Austrian when it's unidentified and got a yellow-black ribbon. Even the experts thought the same, and only looked further around once they exhausted all the Austrian possibilities.
Indeed, but my doubts were based on the fact most other European countries had yellow/black medals, too. For one, even if you look on flag colours, you can find gold and black on German and Imperial Russian flags, too.
Thanas wrote:Also, Irbis, the pour le merite actually has a black and white ribbon (which has turned into yellow due to age/exposure) in your picture.
Yes, but the same (ribbon changing colours) could be equally true for this medal, meaning it could have other colours originally making attributing it to Austria even more dubious, IMHO.
LaCroix wrote:I''m not exactly an expert regarding medals, but Poland never used yellow-black ribbons, and almost always have the polish eagle or writing on them. It pretty sure wasn't a Polish one, and mentally venturing into neighbouring countries brought up Austria as first possible candidate. Who would have thought of a butchered Venezuelan medal?
Pure yellow-black, no, but I think there were at least two medals having yellow-black as part of the ribbon (and one dark yellow/black semi-official 1st Armoured Division Cross). And personally, I'd guess Russia first, seeing it had largest Polish population of all the occupying nations and largest number of mostly Polish units.
Also, you mean Polish Eagle/writing on medals or ribbons? If you meant ribbon, can you give me example? I can't recall most ribbons or even clasps having anything on them, did I miss any prominent examples?