Sacred treasure 4th medal help

[schum]

Hello guys.

I have just bought this medal. The sacred treasure 4th medal. I think from the Meiji period.
But I am in doubt as its size seems to be smaller for the 4th class. It seems to be a 6th one, but it has the rosette on the ribbon and the case seems to be correct.

Could anyone help me to discover if something is wrong?
Anyone knows the correct size for the 4th and 6th grade medals?
Any help would be appreciated.









Now, looking at the writing on the box, it seems to be not original, but not sure.

[ghp95134]

I'm sure Rich Catalano will respond -- he's one of the experts here. In the meantime, the only source I have is the outdated Orders & Medals of Japan and Associated States (James W. Peterson, O.M.S.A. Monograph No. 1, 1967) wherein he states the Third Class badge is 55mm; the Fifth Class is 46mm, the 6th Class is 40mm, and the Seventh Class is 37mm.

Additionally, the gold lettering on your 4th class box's kanji looks like it was touched up by someone.

-- Guy

Edit: Attached image from Rich's site.

[Nick Komiya]

4th and 5th Classes were 1.5 Sun wide and 6th Class was 1.3 Sun. 1 Sun=30.303mm.
You have the correct order in a Meiji script case.

[schum]

Thank you very much.

I was in doubt with this medal.
Thank you for the clarification and information.

[Nick Komiya]

Good for you, but I don't understand why you thought that this 4th class was smaller than it should be, because it should be the same size as the 5th class you already have. You could have easily seen that it was identical in size to your 5th class.

Also, had the order really been too small, it would not have fit so snugly into the indentation molded into the cushion of the case.

Or were you not aware that 4th and 5th classes of Japanese orders are supposed to be identical in size and that the distinction was mainly in which part of the design was gold-plated vs in silver?

This too subtle a difference was the whole reason they later had to add a rosette to the ribbon to highlight the difference even when oxidation made silver and gold hard to tell apart.

[schum]

Hello Nick.

You are right, but when I received it I was not at home, so I could not compare them.
I don't know why, but it seems to me a little bit strange, so I decided to write the thread to find out if somehing was wrong.

I did not know the last part of your post . Thanks.
Regards.