Mondvor

You are wellcome By the way, it Sadasuk's orderbook what is the number of GPW - is that 343087 or 343887? It's not clear on the picture.

Those three orderbooks issued to Sidorov, Varavva and Sadasyk are original in every respect. Ink color and handwriting style are the same on both pages. If you have all items from Sidorov's group I would say it is amazing group and you are lucky to have it.

Many thanks for the orderbooks pictures.

Here it is

First three orderbooks are OK for me, didn't find anything suspicious. The fourth orderbook for Krilov has fake entry about Ushakov medal as well as fake picture and seal. It would be great if you can post first pages (with recipients names) of three first orderbooks. Andrew.

Very interesting mintmark, thanks Gerd. One letter is missing. Most likely the die got worn-off. Actually there are lots of funny cases with those mintmarks. If you interested I can post some awkward variations of GPW mintmarks, for example upside-down rotation or mirror-reflected position. About the suspension GPWs I can say that I remember old good times when they cost almost nothing. I bought my one together with the orderbook for only 90 USD. It was in Kiev in 2001 and the order was in very good condition. I would like to have a time-machime

Thanks Gerd! Three of those GPWs belong to the same variation.

Gerd, it's better to turn all of them over and make another shot

Rick, of course for a collector who had seen real "mirror reverses" before it would not be a problem to uncover the fakes displayed above. But there are two important points. First point - until recently there were no attempts to fake this type of order. So this is a first bell. Second point - obverse was made pretty good. So it's only a question of time for "bad guys" to improve the quality of reverse. Just remember how it started with HSU medals. First fakes were ugly. Recent ones are masterpieces...

Reverse.

Hello PLA, That's very similar order, I think they are from same party of fakes. Here is another one. Obverse.

Rick, those trainings vere not annual. For example "Dvina" that I mentioned above was a big training in wich almost entire Military District was involved. Such big games were once in five or 10 years. If you didn't see similar awards in some groups it doesn't mean they were not possible. BTW, the chance for overseas coflict award is many times lower. He was not an officer. And in those conflicts mostly Soviet Army officers participated. And even for officers the percent was extremely low (comparing with total number of officers in Soviet Army).

I think he got his MM medal for a good results of his unit's work displayed during some major military training (tactical exercises). He was in charge of the missile launcher, so most likely his crew destroyed important target on this exercises. This was a common thing to give high awards for military exercises. For example two people got Nahimov 1st class for "Запад-81" ("West-81") military training in 1981. In 1970 were two major tactical trainings - "Dvina" (Belorussian Military District) and "Ocean" (Nothern Fleet). So this Ukraininan guy could participate in one of those "games". And I didn't get Rick's words about "geriatric hands of The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR". Rick, what do you mean?

Dolf, very nice collection of aircrafts. The last one, I beleive, is Curtiss SON-1 Seagull. Check two pictures. Second one - is exact prototype of your model, it has same number.

I think first two pages (with picture and with name) are original. His only award was Glory 3rd class. Entries about 2nd class Glory and Otvaga are fake. Take a look at the better picture of this book. The one that you placed has light reflection. But on my picture you can see ink color difference and even the shapes of the letters are different.

Dima, there is no reason to buy the blank orderbook to find its serial number. There were so many unissued late orderbooks (both with Menteshashvili and Gorbachev signatures) that tracking any serial number borders doesn't make sense. Unissued orderbooks were in every ten thousands of numbers. So there was no standart pattern which numbers belong to blank books and which ones belong to issued documents. You are absolutely right that the only way to prove that order was issued is not the presence of the document, but official paper from Soviet Army military archive in Podolsk (or Naval archive in Gatchina).

Second page.

The highest number I've seen with the orderbook (so it was issued) was 106081. I think that this orderbook is authentic, however I can not prove that. Anyway, take a look and tell me your opinions.

The highest number of "Crab" that I oserved was 140165 (here is a picture). If anyone have seen bigger number, please post an image.

Dolgushin was a commander of 156th Fighter Regiment. This regiment in turn was a part of 215th Fighter Division (normally division included 3 regiments). And the division was a part of 8th Fighter Corps (normally air corps consisted of 2 divisions). About the picture - I believe that Dolgushin is second from the left. He is only one of them with Nevsky and he looks like Dolgushin from the other picture. Three others are Holodov, Baklan and Moshin. Abbreviations belov the picture of La-7 mean: ИАП - истребительный авиационный полк (Fighter Air Regiment) ИАД - истребительная авиационная дивизия (Fighter Air Division) ИАК - истребительный авиационный корпус (Fighter Air Corps) 4 воздушная армия - 4th Air Army

Dima, what is the name of your friend?

They just scratch it out. Silver is very soft metal. It takes only few minutes to competely remove serial number with a help of sandpaper. After that highly skilled fakemakers make the surface slightly pebbed with a help of sand-throwing machine. Small particles of sand are launching under a high pressure and hit the surface of the metal making it pebbed. So all traces of polishing are gone and it's hard to uncover the fake. But in your case sand-machine was not used and polished surface is visible.

You are right! Those without rays are more common. The guys with rays probably were manufactured on the different mint (but I'm not sure).

This GPW 22221 looks good and all original except for the screwback plate. This plate is from Bravery or Military Merit medal, but not from the order. And of course the enamel on the upper ray is missing, but I believe you know that.

Of course the presence (or absence) of oxidation or ЛМД mintmark on the ring are interesting features of the medal. But they are not of the greatest importance because they vere added to the medal AFTER it was minted (manufactured). If we want to find real variations we should check differences in medals stamp or die (I'm not sure what word fits better). So we have to find the differences that occured BEFORE medal was minted. Here is an example of such difference. In one case - left picture - there is no line (ray) at the space between the hammer and its handle. The line (ray) just below is solid and unbroken. In the other case - right picture - there is a short line (ray) at the angle between hammer and its handle. The line (ray) just below has a gap where hammer's tip touches it. Veteran of Labor medal was manufactured in the amounts much bigger than any other Soviet award. By January 1, 1995 more than 39.197.000 people were awarded with this medal. So many variations exist. I described only one of them