Fascist era items - Medals, armshield, union card, Albanian coin...

[Shining]

Hello,

Here are some items related to the fascist era...

A commemorative medal of the military operations in "Africa Orientale" (instituted on 27th April 1936), with a blade "FERT" (motto of the House of Savoy) on the ribbon for the fighters. As we can see the "crowned z", this is the royal coin version.
I find Mussolini's quote rather ironic : "Many enemies, much honor"...




A GIL merit cross : the red model was attributed to Piccole Italiane, the girls from 8 to 14 in this paramilitary organization. I didn't find any meaning for the GIL insignia on the ribbon, I believe this could be some "customization" by the owner.



The medal size is different between this red cross and the one I already had (the light blue model was decerned to Avanguardisti, the boys from 14 to 18). Here's a picture with the two crosses side by side :


An armshield for the Avanguardisti of Florence


A membership card of the industry workers union of Turin, from 1939



A 0,20 LEK (20 cents) coin from 1941, in use in Albania during Italian occupation. "Shqipni" means Albania (wasn't obvious to me)



Regards

[OldSteel]

Well done Shining!
very nice items with correct and detailed explanations, I agree with you, the badge applied on the medal ribbon is probably a owner customization, made using a collar badge for GIL "Avanguardisti" uniform, as you can see in this document of that time:
http://www.comune.cinisello-balsamo....g/800_dist.jpg

Regards
Roberto

[Shining]

Thank you Roberto, this document is interesting.
I was also thinking about a collar insignia... Now I'm sure of it !
And this gives also the explanation for the different sizes between the two crosses : the crosses for Avanguardisti were bigger than the ones for Piccole Italiane (Balilla)... Even if it's written "GIL" on both.