Original Item. Only One Available. This is a very interesting named Spanish Medalla de la Vieja Guardia, or “Old Guard Medal,” associated with the Falange and engraved to Miguel M. Garcia. The reverse records expediente number 4238, the recipient’s name, the place name Baamonde, and the year 1933, indicating an exceptionally early Falange association dating to the year of the organization’s founding. The medal retains its Spanish-style rectangular suspension, ribbon with applied Falange insignia, and an additional three-arrow device.

This named example is engraved:

Exp. No. 4238
Miguel M. Garcia
Baamonde

1933

This identifies the medal to Miguel M. Garcia of Baamonde, a small historic village in the municipality of Begonte, Galicia, Spain, and that he has been in the organization since 1933.

The ribbon has an attached clasp with three white arrows. This feature is particularly interesting because additional devices worn on the ribbon of the Medalla de la Vieja Guardia could indicate prewar Falange hierarchy or status. The 1942 regulations permitted recipients who had held an organizational rank before the Civil War to wear the corresponding hierarchy emblem on the medal ribbon. Members of the Falange Primera Línea, however, were specifically authorized a silver angle rather than simply a generic three-arrow device.

Period Falange insignia regulations used individual arrows as indicators of certain leadership positions, with three arrows associated with the rank of Jefe de Centuria in some prewar insignia systems. The exact meaning of the three-arrow device on this medal should therefore be researched further rather than identified automatically as the First Line clasp.

The traditional rectangular Spanish suspension remains present and supports the ribbon and medal as intended. The overall appearance is well preserved, with the engraved reverse providing considerably more individual historical interest than an unnamed example.

Applications for the Medalla de la Vieja Guardia continued for years after its creation. The principal application period extended through the later 1940s, and surviving research indicates that approximately 31,000 award files had been resolved by the middle of 1950. This figure refers to processed expedientes rather than necessarily proving that exactly 31,000 medals were physically issued.

This is a particularly interesting named example because its engraved 1933 qualifying date places the recipient at the very beginning of Falange history, while Exp. No. 4238, the full Miguel M. Garcia / Baamonde inscription, and the unusual three-arrow ribbon device provide several avenues for additional biographical and organizational research.