Gerd Becker

Your photos are not only allways helpful, but also very dangerous for my health Awesome Example, WC.

Robert, thanks, nice piece. Mine is unmarked and on a long stickpin. Never seen a piece like it before. But its fine IMO.

Thanks, Paul. Great Lesson!

Here is a little display with the only award, i have from my family. A KVK 2nd class with swords awarded to my mother Edith Becker as a Marinehelferin in 1943 for bravery during and air raid on the Kiel Harbor, which she defended with the flak-unit she was attached to. She managed to keep the contact between the single weapon emplacements and she was the only one of the female communication team, who stayed on her place during the raid. Like she told me, it was not exaclty due to bravery, but due to the fact, that she hated to go into the bunker and prefered to stay outside, even during the airraid. As a coincidence the bunker was hit on this day and several of her comrades died. She remembers very well, when she received the award in front of her complete unit, about 200 people. Of course she was very proud. Unfortunately she had to throw away the award document, when she escaped the russians after the war in the later East Germany. The eagle was a gift of another collector, John v.d. Heiden and i added it to the display, as she would have worn an eagle like this. Thanks for looking Gerd

Great pictures, Jason. Thanks for posting them here. Like David said, most of us won?t have the opportunity to see this due to its location. Impressive piece of armor!

Charles, welcome to the forum Thats a really nice badge, Dan. Looks, like you started with the rarest version, congrats

No evidence, Ed. I was hoping, one of the more knowledgable members would chime in and confirm it. I remember to having read something about these "BB&Co" pieces, i.e. they were the actually awarded examples, but i neither can find the source, nor i do remember, who said it where. To your other questions, i am not entirely sure. It was allways my impression, that these were awarded by the Ottoman Government to all participating troops of the fights on the Gallipoli peninsula. Or am i wrong?

Nice, Kevin. There is a rumor(don?t know, if its more), that these "BB&Co" pieces were the actually awarded examples. Gerd

Jim, at least for me its easier to distinguish between the variations over the reverse,but it could very well be, that others can distinguish them by the obverse. But the serialnumber-ranges had very distinctive mint-marks and the information to this is available on Andrei?s website. Andrei, you are welcome. I knew, i should have just copy&pasted it I have mirrored your website on my harddisk, that way the time to load is minimal. I can recommend the program WebSpider 2 for this job. Gerd

Jim, take a look on Andrei?s website: www.narod.mondvor.ru Its very extensive and describes the variations in great detail. Even if you can?t speak russian, its understandable. Andrei, some scary fakes. The first one has the obvious fake enamel, but the other two are better.

I agree with Andrei, its a fake. Number removed and new engraved. Wrong mint mark for this s/n-range. I rarely look at the obverse details anymore, but more on the reverse, the mint mark and serialnumber. Jim, better be choosy than sorry I just spoke on the phone with another collector and we agreed, that nothing beats handling a piece and you can?t be sure anymore just from a picture. I just started 3 years ago with soviet, i collected German imperial miniatures before that. But i was very lucky to have some great helpful collectors at my side and i studied everything about variations, i could find. So i was luckily able to avoid any fakes in my collection so far. At least i hope so... Gerd

Jim, i think, the highest issued numbered ORB was a 6th award. I can see nothing suspicous so far on your Red Banner, lets see the reverse. Is that a mirror reverse? Gerd

and the fifth one too To clarify: 3. Medal for Combat 4. Medal for 40 years Victory at Khalkin Gol Could be the last row of a big soviet group. Gerd

Very nice group, Andrei Interesting, that his health state and age is mentioned in both citations. Gerd

Wow, this is a shame! Probably too good to be true. Amazing, how good the fakes are. I am glad, i am into soviet (as if that better ). I am sorry it turned out bad, David Hope, you can return it without problems. Gerd

Interesting design. Nice medal, Darrel

Christian, you have to go into the Preferences of your browser and choose English as your first language. You can remove the other Languages. Then you should be able to access these section. Gerd

Beatiful badge I really like the highlighted details on the eagle on this one, just great!

I agree, nice things can still be found on ebay, even some bargains. Dave is on my favourite sellers page and there are two or three other dealers, who sell on ebay, which i could recommend for selling only original awards. You just have to look through tons of crap and overpriced common items, before you find some pearls.

Excellent discussion Gentlemen Lots of things to consider....

*doublepost*

Good points, Jim Gerd

Ronny, just sleep a night with your head on it and you?ll know, if its a pillow back or not No, seriously, definately a nice characterful "pillow back"

Christian, thats true and you are right, maybe i only place it higher due to personal preference. But i love Glories too! If you only look at the numbers awarded, then the OPW 1st class was a more prestigious award and i think, that goes even more for soldiers/NCO?s than for officers. I imagine a soldier could impress his buddies more with an OPW 1st class than with a Glory 3rd class, also due to the fact, that first mentioned looked more like an order than the last mentioned, which made more the impression of a Medal. But thats just my impression, you must keep in mind, i am not too long into soviet collecting. Gerd

Christian, i would agree with your order of precedence, except, i would place the Order of the Great Patriotic War 1st class above the Glory 3rd class in Category "B". Thats all... Gerd