Ferdinand

I thought that these were all combat related awards. From what I read, these were never given out as long service awards, as the ORB and OL were.

They were indeed not awarded as long service awards, but they were awarded as wounds awards. These pop up somewhere in the 400K range, but especially in the 700K they are not uncommon. Most are awarded by the 7 November 1947 wounds decree, that also awarded OPW2s and BMs.

Unfortunately I don't have access to my medals at this moment. In my previous message I was referring to the 50 Years of Victory Medal (the first one has an LMD mint mark on the reverse of the ring and the second one has nothing).

The 60s both have marks. At the moment I can only provide these poor scans:

The first one has an LMD mint mark on the ring, the second one has nothing.

Dan, the number is 350949, so a slightly earlier award (approximately spring 1945). It's most probably a combat award; the first wound awards turn up in the 400K range.

May I ask what the prices for these orders are in Armenia?

And similar differences on the 60 Years of Victory Medal. Are these made by different mints or is the one of poorer quality an unofficial issue?

Some close-ups:

I've encountered two different varations of the Russian 50 and 60 Years of Victory Medals.

First of all the 50 Years of Victory Medal:

Some comparisons in close-up (1200 DPI):

I wouldn't call the quality of - for example - the campaign medals above poor, the quality is just as moderate as the other Umalatova medals. If the awards and documents are produced purely for the collectors' market, they utterly failed, because I have yet to find anyone who collects these. Do you have any proof that they aren't "awarded" or is that a hypothesis?

Are you certain of that? I also have different variations of the 50 and 60 Years of Victory Medals, but I have always been under the impression that these were simply made by different mints, using different dies or something like that.

I was at the Izmailovo market in Moscow in May this year and even then several varations of this medal could already be found.

This is the certificate for the OPW2 shown above. As you can see they simply photographed a Soviet 1985-issue OPW2:

On some of these certificates, worn ribbons, brass suspensions and slightly worn and patinated medals can be seen, so I think they photographed original Soviet awards for some of their reissue certificates.

Here's a certificate for an Umalatova Order of the Red Banner:

I also have a bunch of award certificates for these reissued medals. Here are blank documents for the Polar Region, Partisan 2nd Class, Sevastopol, and Kiev Medal:

And their reverses:

Umalatova also reissued the Soviet campaign medals. Here are a Stalingrad, Kiev, Partisan 2nd Class, Sevastopol and Polar Region Medal:

And the screwplate (which is marked and numbered as well, but 3970):

Reverse:

I don't think Umalatova had access to the vaults with unawarded Soviet awards, so they produced their own. This is an Umalatova Order of the Patriotic War. It is numbered 6415 and marked "PP" (perhaps Platinapribor?). It seems to be made of aluminium and cold enamel:

But Umalatova also awarded Soviet awards, like almost all Soviet orders and medals and even Hero of the Soviet Union Gold Stars. One of their "New HSUs" was Mikhail Minin, one of the guys that supposedly planted the first Soviet flag on top of the Reichstag in May 1945. Here he is seen wearing his Umalatova Gold Star:

Sorry, disregard.

I don't have much experience with duplicates, but to me it's really strange that they used a "4" instead of a Cyrillic "д". These look a bit alike, but to me this is a very bad sign, so I think this is an original unnumbered piece that was numbered by fakers.

Great medal. These early pieces are hard to find in good condition.

It's great to see that every now and then split groups are reunited. Also very generous gifts. There are some great guys in the collectors' community.

The MMM serial number should be quite low by the way, since there were only 1797 pieces awarded before 17 November 1939.

Very nice!! Would he have been eligible for the Battle of Lake Khasan badge as well?

No way to know. I don't see any references that he fought there, but he was already serving in 1937.