Mondvor

About grayish shadow in the center... It's a common thing. Look at this order, it has same thing around hammer and sickle.

I think enamel and screwpost are original. Here is a picture of the reverse. No signs of repaired screpost.

Ed, I have images of several original documents for Personal Courage. If somebody is interested I can post some of them later at the day (after I get home).

Both order and document are sloppy fakes.

This part of the Red Banner looks absolutely normal to me. But I would agree with other members that it's better to place the picture of entire order. Otherwise it's like to place a picture of a belly button and ask if it's a man or a woman

Looks OK to me.

Doc, this idea make sense. Many collectors doing this way. But this very copy of Suvorov was made for different reason. As far as I understand it was on sale...

I don't know the explanation. But it could be one thing... Of course you know that during last years actual prices for Soviet awards increased greatly. So many American collectors selling out their collections because of two reasons. First reason - they made a great investment and can get three or four times more then they spent buying the orders seven or eight years ago. Second reason - they can not afford any new purchases of Soviet staff. When Red Star Mondvor was 200 USD it was OK, but now it's more than 1000 USD. And if you consider Suvorov or Kutuzov, the distance will be even more dramatic. So they all put their collections for sale. That's why it's so many new items appeared recently. Just check how many new amazing things has Moiseev on his web site... But the prices

This real Suvorov 3rd class was for sale in Russia several month ago. Unfortunately I have no idea who bought it. Probably the new owner made impressions from a real piece to produce a copy. Or it could be previous owner. Or a dealer in between them. Who knows...

Actually it has little enamel damage on the tip of left lower star's ray. This enamel chip is superficial, maybe half distance to the metal. It is visible on the scan. But this was the best condition I could find...

Christofe, what do you mean by "recent presence on the market"? The first time when this GPW type was observed was five years ago.

Apparently he was wounded...

From his Award Card we can see that after the end of the war he was transferred to reserve and worked as a Secretary of Zhitomir Regional Executive Committee.

Division. Born: 1914 Nationality: Ukrainian Party membership: member of Communist Party Participation in Great Patriotic War: since June 24, 1941 Wounds or contusions: wounded on August 13, 1941 In Red Army: since 1928 From what Military Registration Office was recruited: Troyanovskij District Office of Zhitomir Region Citation Previous awards: not awarded before Home address: Kuibishev oblast, city of Sizran, Military Settlement #1 Short description of merits: On January 16, 1943 at the region of Trud two enemy infantry companies started a counter attack against our front lines. At this time comrade Andreichuk was on the artillery firing positions. He quickly turned around our guns and opened fire. German attack was repelled and our infantry was able to accomplish its primary task. For his resoluteness and resourcefulness displayed in combat comprade Andreichuk deserves a state award ? Military Merit medal. Commander of 1032nd Artillery Regiment Major Korotkov January 22, 1943 Later commander of 107th Infantry Division Colonel Bezhko upgraded the citation to Patriotic War 2nd class. Andreichuk was awarded with Patriotic War 2nd class by a decree of 40th Army # 11/n from Febryary 10, 1943.

Orderbook - second page

Orderbook - first page

Reverse

Obverse

Andreas, Suvorov 10.439 is real. But if you compare serial numbers of this order and serial number of the fake order posted earlier by Khyber you'll see something interesting.

Rings any bells?

This Suvorov was made from real order using high-pressure cast technology. First you have to take nice and precise impression from a real order. They use impression materials similar to those used in dentistry. The liquid metal forced to those impressions under very high pressure, so even small details reflected on the future surface of fake order. You can clearly see, that mint mark has original shape and even serial number has original handwriting pattern. About the obverse. Nose on Suvorov's face is OK. Late variation of Suvorov (appr. after 10.200) have this shape of nose. BTW, he looks like Putin little bit.

Thanks Dave, 39XXXXX really must be a mistake, because no numbers in 37XXXXX - 39XXXXX were observed during last several years.

Sorry, what is the number of second Bravery medal? In award card it looks like 3658186. If it is correct, then it is highest number for Bravery I've ever seen. Previous highest was 3658166.

Paul, that is depends on what classification you want to apply

This is 100% original Lenin. Does it have a document?