JimZ

I personally drew the line at collecting Soviet. The Russian Federation military and its awards do not appeal to me.

Firstly - Design. No offence meant, but I do not like the look of Russian Federation ODMs which in may cases are of inferior quality to the good old soviet stuff... late soviet awards were already not of the best quality and I do not think that the Federation has done much to improve the beauty of its awards.

Secondly - Relative importance. Russia is not the USSR and it does not have the muscle that it once did. I'll probably become a persona non grata in Russia now... but although Russia played a significant part in the world history in the 20th Century, through its participation in the GPW and in the cold war, it has since lost its relative importance in the world - still a superpower of course, pas la meme chose! Yes, Irish Gunner is right - war will raise the desirability of awards, because it creates combat awards. I do not care for a long service medal. But I do care for a bravery award. I believe there are more service awards being given out rather than valour awards.

Thirdly - Supply and Demand. I hardly doubt that there is as much supply of Russian Federation awards as there was for original soviet awards in the 1990s early 2000s. Remember that these went cheap and they were almost always original. 20 years down the road, even the more complex awards are sometimes well faked. Let alone inferior quality Russian Awards. I am not talking about higher end orders which, lets face it are not really on the market. Then you also have to navigate between official and non-official. Hauptmann mentions the several unofficial veteran's awards - typical of the soviet system to award anniversary or veteran awards - but not official and not really desirable. So even if one does weed these out and succeed in collecting official medals only, can one be sure that they are original.

Fourth - Which brings me to my final point: availibility of literature. I am not well informed here but I get the feeling that there is still insufficient literature to help would be collectors. Soviet collectors were, at the time, armed with the Red Bible (now rendered partially obsolete by modern publications). And that was all we needed at the time!!

Frank, the time to collect Russian Federation awards will come. Possibly, when it becomes appealing to the masses, those who have taken an early interest will find themselves at the forefront of the hobby. But not until that big war comes, or sufficient years go by to allow recently awarded ODMs to find themselves on the market in abundant quantities. And when they do, just pray to God that the dealers do not manage to fudge it up as they did with Soviet awards!!

Jim