Mogul

His was not about the bling like Brezhnev.

They actually sell these things as a copy. Most of the times.

Looks just like mine, but without any oxidation.

I've seen one of these for 5 bucks on eBay.

I am no Wild Card, but I adore it like a freak!

Looks like alpha or something like that. Never noticed anything like this on my orders, I gotta check.

I was referring only to your "gotcha" remark.

I didn't get it at all. I know what 'gotcha' means. I never claimed myself with knowledge of all the guys, that spent their life studying orders and medals, but I still, I know stuff.

And?

I'm not that hardcore as you guys are, but I also know my drill. We base our valuation on different techniques and different knowledge. It's much better this way. There is nothing shameful about asking a question.

Vic, can you make a few more detailed pictures of your order? Scans would be awesome!

I don't know for sure, that's why I'm asking!

A better picture of obverse. Can't do proper reverse anymore.

I mean the actual order with all the seals and stuff. Funny thing is that most of these orders look vintage, I'm even certain that every piece is genuine but #9 because of the obverse confusion. Even the pictures in books differ.

Wait, wait, wait! Where is the order made by Leningrad Mint?

Thanks for info, I always thought that principal giving happened right after the establishment of this order. I always thought that 140 men were awarded with this order. I don't think that Leningrad Mint did any.

My salary covers it up for my bad memory, but I can tell you that it was more than 3 grand.

It's not as hard as you might think. You need to find a guy that knows a lot about silver, because most of these cats know a lot about gold, but they leave silver to Tiffany.

No problem. I think it was something like '99 or maybe a few years later. A good friend of mine was selling antiques in Vienna. He gave me a call and told me about this particular order, that he got it from a slovenian guy who really needed some money. I flew to take a closer look and didn't get it, I was not a novice collector, but I didn't really distinguished good from bad, so we went to a jeweler I know for an advice on this piece and he told us that this thing should be at least 50 years old. I don't remember the exact sum I paid for this one, but it was definitely not an arm and a leg. I knew that it was something rare, but didn't know where to look, until I found an article on sobiratel.net and I was so surprised to see the same order that was in my collection. It changed a lot of hands during the years and as far as I know the very first confirmed owner lived in Paris. Sometimes the history of ownership is much more interesting than the history of order itself.

I always thought that this thing started in 90s. Sure thing the whole movement was around for ages, but I never thought that somebody was selling his stuff back in the Soviet days. Thanks for info. I was always wondering if somebody ever ordered a copy of his own order back in the days, you know, like these guys in Poland did. For example, you don't want to wear your original Suvorov, so you find a jeweler and make yourself a perfect copy that you won't cry about if it's missing.

Who would actually bother faking this in the 60s or 70s? There was no market. As long as patina is real the order is real. But if talk these days, I don't know, the tech in jewelry design is way ahead of it's time and you can literally replicate anything.

I don't think that it's that simple to sell a piece like that.