Stogieman

David.......... sorry I was wrong. The group Alex has is asking $7800- and unsold.

Wow David, I should be so lucky to have consignors like that.........

Polish, right?

PS: Second row, if there was one, will be something easily confused as a single..... 2X LS Awards, Austrian WW1, Hungarian WW1, Bulgarian WW1, possibly a few foreign to round it out, but also possible as a shorty below this........ that should narrow it down a tad. ;>)

PS: Please do not cut and paste us over to them..... everyone knows where to find us if they wanted to.

I can only add one thing......... I still give it a "remotely possible" rating, despite misgivings of my "Evil Twin"?

Picked a beautiful new HP "All-in-one" earlier this year as I needed the FAX/Copy functions and cheaper to buy one piece....... makes wonderful scans of paper items, but badges vibrate and move. Very disappointing.

I can only echo others' sentiments here. I would place this in the "highly unlikely, but not impossible" category.... I take it we're talking about a miniature bar here? Not a full sized bar? Frankly, that does make it moderately more believable to me as if he was a civilian... a miniature bar would actually be more appropriate. The miniature bars I have seen that were outright fakes did not have this double-furled ribbon arrangement. I would not buy this as anything other than a curiousity and then I would disect it for UV reactivity, etc. A photo of the back would be nice to see.

Hi David, Alex in Ohio has a set with research for ~$5700, I have not seen another full set that I remember. Alex's has not sold yet. What else comes with the group(s)?

I think 'obsessive" is the understatement of the year...... determined would probably be more accurate.... also "blinded by the light" comes to mind....

I think it's great when we get to hear the story behind these. I have a pile in research now.... the wait is a bummer but the results are often well worth it! I suspect that as with many other issues surrounding Soviet collecting we will get cut off from this aspect as well.

The late award seems to be something we see repeatedly with Mongolian Aawards.... the group I just received has jubilee medals, some of which were actually awarded quite a bit past the actual date of the medal. It would be fascinating to try and figure out exactly what the criteria was on some of these late awards!

The 2-place bar with the Bulgarian Cross is very special indeed!

Well, if it's legit, he has a heck of a deal for himselves.

Interesting bar and mostly "invisible" war rewards. With no long service awards I don't think Rick will be able to find this soldier.

Well, the crown through swords is un-commonly used, but we do see it. Over the wreath, not before this. A full photo of the bar, front & back, is needed!!

I believe the correct term would be "frugal". We do see these bars for everyone from gefreiters to Obersts!!

Well, I don't know of any others and there's a couple here I have not seen before in person. Nice, especially the last one!

And that he was a Bavarian, Proud und Treue

Exactly..... and one more example for my "real" files. Thanks!

Whoops! Forgot to mention.... very neat with the "recycled" metal...... have you figured out what it was before it became a Partisan badge??

Interesting points Ed......... is there any documentation out there as to how many of these guys actually fought?

well, you can't blame them for trying......... or can you? This is a good example to study with respects to construction techniques used on a higher-quality medal bar...

Nice clear, clean scans/photos in this thread. What are you guys using for equipment?

Hi Andreas, a photo/scan of the back of the Obsevrer Badge?