new world

Auction wil take place in about 10 hours. I guess we will know the result in the next couple of days. William

These awards historically were selling slightly above the price of the metal content. You have to keep in mind that there this type of Lenin (made by Leningrad and Moscow mints) were issued from 1950s to the end of Soviet Union. That's over 30 years and about 270,000 awards!!! Lots of these Lenins were melted into jewelry or dental crowns, but still - plenty of them survived. This award is not rare at all, there are always several for sale at any moment. BTW, currently price of Lenin is approaching $2000 in Russia, but still I think Igor went too high with this one. William

I am not sure about this particular bade, but Yugoslavia issued nice table medal for participants of storming of Winter Palace. William

Well, I went to the auction preview. This time around Dmitry has great collection of early Sovier Republican awards. I have never seen so many republican awards together! It was rare opportunity to sit down and hold them all in your hands. The workmanship and the details are simply amazing. Early Soviet awards were truly special, contunuing traditions of tsarist school of marksmen. It's not your late badges where everything is stamped out as one massive silver / gold chunk of metal with one or two elements attached. No, some of these early awards were composed of multiple pieces, each tiny element enameled and attached with rivets or miniatire hooks. The awards look so fragile, one has to wander how they were worn. Take Odessa Criminal Police badges - I assume these wee for everyday wear, but the construction looks very fragile to me. You begin to picture brave detectives chasing criminals on the dark city streets... Just the fact that these amazing awards have survived through the years is astonishing. Then your your eyes shift to the page of the catalogue where you see price estimate for some of these treasures - small fortunes at $20,000, $30,000, $40,000 - and you realize real meaning of the word... William

Igor is selling "Order of Lenin, Type 6, Var 1 (Leningrad Mint), #266371, with a document, 1954 issue." for $2,300! What's going on? Is there anything I am missing about this particular award? This is just common Lenin order, there's nothing rare about it. William

Friends, thank you very much to all who contributed to analysis of this group. :thumbsup I had my own doubts, just wanted to hear broader opinion. In addition to the questions about the award book there are questions about awards themelves. I decided not to keep the group and will return it to the seller. William

3rd page

2nd page

Guys, you are tough! Here's first page of the book - Major wearing all awards in the book except Red Banner.

True 100%, but research will take months and I need to make a decision on this group now. William

Some stamps look pale, so here's the list of awards as they are entered in the book: Red Star - sn 18992 Red Star - sn 33239 OPW 1 cl - sn 184474 OPW 2 cl - sn 173709 OPW 2 cl - sn 180854 Red Banner - sn 515134 William

Colleagues, Please post your opinions about award book for this early group (1940 Red Star!). Does the book look legit and does the combination of awards make sense? Thank you, William

I am not saying it's not possible, just not that common. This book/group raise lots of questions. Why Khmelnitsky & Red Banner are filled in after non-numbered (long service?) post-war Military Merit medal? Why the color of the book is so uneven - very dark on the bottom and bright white on the top? Could this be indication of bleaching? I guess to answer all this questions once and for all research is necessary. William

I am going to stop by for auction preview. I'll ask Dmitry for his opinion, but I doubt he can predict.

On high-priced items I'd rather deal with Igor. Knowing him personally helps and his reputation is top.

Based on Bob's logs seller on eBay has been selling SB for three months and now he increases the price. I also love his accepted payment methods - cash, bank transfer or Western Union to China... William

Christian, the recepient got NEW Ukrainian order of Khmelnitsky, it was issued after Ukraine became independent. William

I just checked the group again and I think there's some hope. He has the following medals w docs: - Liberaion of Warsaw - Capture of Berlin - Vistory over Germany His rank at the war's end was Guards Captain. Unit name: 4th Guards Antitank Artillery Brigade, reserve of stavka. One of his badges is for veteran of 247 Roslavl Rifle Division. If he was a Captain, he must have been in the trenches for a while, so I hope he had some awards. William

Gents, I have this neat large group to a veteran. Unfortunately there are no combat WW2 awards, but it has every jubilee and army anniversary medal. It also has Ukrainian order of B Khmelnitsky, 1985 OPW, as well as some unit specific veteran badges. Has anyone ever done research on groups like this one? What were the results? I can think of two scenarios for this group: 1) vet has participated in WW2, but never really saw any combat action or never had a chance to distinguish himself to be considered for an award 2) There were some WW2 awards (in separate order book) which were seprated from the group and the research may shed some light onto possible missing pieces. What do you think? William

Any updates on the story? Bob, Alex, Mark?

Awesome group! I dare to predict the group will sell for more than $10,000. And the lucky buyer most likely will be someone from Russia / Ukraine. William

Gentlemen, Thank you very much for your input! It supports my belief that these are indeed different awards. I' m going to talk to the seller about replacing this award. It's a shame the reverse is all ruined, the award looks perfect on the observe. Best regards, William

different angle of my award, note multiple scratches

Award which arrived in the mail

Friends, I have a dispute with the seller about Korean order. It looks to me that award in the original picture and the one I received are not the same. One difference is presence of multiple scratches on my award, while original photo shows smooth surface with nice patina. Please let me know if you think it's the same award. Best regards, William PS: pic of original order from the seller