NGUYEN DYNASTY (ANNAM): Bao Dai, 1926-1945, gilt tiên medal (15.38g), Barac-64, Joyaux-743, 34mm, Bao Dai Merit Medal 3rd Class, dai nam hoang de bao giam around flaming sphere // tam hang within circle, surrounded by dragon with head facing atop circle, attached on mount with yellow ribbon with three thin red stripes (indicating a gold medal), EF-AU, R, ex John Sylvester Jr. Collection. The Bao Dai Merit Medal was instituted in 1938 and comprised three classes. As the imperial government merely issued a brevet for the award, the recipient had to purchase the actual medal from a private source. The French manufacturer M. Delande, for instance, priced in his 1938 catalog gilt silver medals at 75, 65 & 60 francs, and gilt bronze medals at 45, 40, and 35 francs, for the three respective classes. The medals were at first accompanied by a green-yellow-red ribbon, and later a yellow ribbon with three thin red or green stripes. Cruder and lighter examples were made after Indochina was cut off from the Metropole during World War II.
