Italy, Kingdom. A National Fascist Youth Organization (ONB) Meritorious Award Medal
Item #EU16096
Price:
$100
(Opera Nazionale Balilla). In bronze, obverse illustrating a robed winged women, her right arm raised in a Fascist salute, her left arm holding a large fasces against her body, the bust of Benito Mussolini behind her, inscribed "AD BENEMERENTI" across the base and engraver marked at the far right, reverse illustrating the Italian eagle, a branch of oak leaves and acorns on the left, a branch of laurel leaves at the right, inscribed "ONB" (Opera Nazionale Balilla) below, measuring 32 mm in diameter, spotting, near extremely fine.
Footnote: The Opera Nazionale Balilla (ONB) was an Italian Fascist youth organization functioning between 1926 and 1937, when it was absorbed into the Gioventù Italiana del Littorio (GIL), a youth section of the National Fascist Party. It takes its name from Balilla, the nickname of Giovan Battista Perasso, a Genoese boy who, according to local legend, started the revolt of 1746 against the Habsburg forces that occupied the city in the War of the Austrian Succession. Perasso was chosen as the inspiration for his supposed age and revolutionary activity, while his presence in the fight against Austria reflected the irredentist stance taken by early Fascism, and Italy's victories in the First World War.