slava1stclass

Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory - Present Day Market Realities

My interest in Full Cavaliers of the Order of Glory (which extends back some 15 years) has led me to the following general observations ref the collectors market for Full Cavalier sets that has developed in the United States and Europe over this period. I offer the following as my personal observations and welcome your comments/opinions.

The Hierarchy of Collectability (defined by dealers' asking prices for a Full Cavalier set ranked from most expensive to least expensive) as of 24 February 2006:

1) Order of Glory 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class medals with accompanying Full Cavalier award booklet that includes photo of recipient, official military commissariat stamp on photo and date when booklet was issued plus all standard entries.

2) Same as 1) above but the photo does not have the official military commissariat stamp and the booklet lacks an entry for date of issue.

3) Order of Glory 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class medals with accompanying Full Cavalier award booklet but award booklet is missing the photo, official military commissariat stamp and date booklet was issued.

4) Order of Glory 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class medals with accompanying Ordenskaya Knizhka with or without photo.

5) Order of Glory 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class medals with accompanying Voenniy Bilet.

6) Order of Glory 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class medals with research e.g. Special Awards Card for HSU and Full Cavalier and/or Standard Awards Card and/or copies of Glory Award Citations.

7) Order of Glory 1st, 2nd and 3rd Class medals that stand alone without accompanying documentation of any sort.

NOTES:

1) Over the past 15 years I have encountered a few category 1) Full Cavalier sets that also included the associated Ordenskaya Knizhka (OK). These occasions have been far and few between. In those instances where I have seen them, all of the other accompanying awards (e.g. Red Star or Medal for Valor) were never included/available with the set. For this reason, I have not included a separate ranking for category 1) - 3) Full Cavalier sets that might also include the OK since, in my judgment, dealers don't necessarily adjust the price upwards unless the orders/medals identified in the OK are also with the group.

2) The above ranking does not consider Full Cavalier sets that include duplicate Orders of Glory in their make up. While the duplicate(s) may be original in every respect, their presence markedly detracts from the sets' historic/monetary value.

BOTTOM LINE: My observation is that dealers' asking prices for a Full Cavalier set generally follow the above guideline. I look forward to your thoughts.

Regards,

slava1stclass

To all:

No matter how you look at it, this set raises far too many questions. I made this point to Herr Gattringer of Austria some time ago. In my view, no right-minded collector would feel comfortable buying this as a Full Knight/Cavalier set - no matter how one might seek to justify it as such.

Regards,

slava1stclass