Wat05

Greetings! I would like to know if I have here an original II Class Order. Is this medal made of silver or a different material? It is very heavy. Is it also known what period and mint it came from? I could not see a hallmark on the ring. Thanks for any help possible!

Hello! I would like to know what period and mint this order came from? I imagine it is a later version, maybe the 80s? And I’ve heard of the main Mennica Polska but I’m uncertain if this is the place. Thanks for any help that can be offered!

I also think it is nice. I personally like these medals, but they have been more of a minor award, up until now. Perhaps with the much smaller numbers of veterans every year, these medals might become more special, perhaps made with precious metals? Apparently, 2.5 million received the 70 Years medal, and 1 million received the 75 Years medal. This is obviously a very sharp decline. In 2024, there were only 16,000 living veterans, and this number includes veterans of Ukraine, The Baltics, which are countries that will not permit this medal to be awarded. Therefore, I imagine these medals will be few awarded. I am unsure if they will be awarded to foreign nationals, such as the British in the Arctic Convoy, or if it would be awarded to others that were not part of the war, and eventually become an award for current serving soldiers of today, when celebrating the anniversary. It seemed that this happened with the 20 Years of Victory medal, where soldiers who were serving in the Armed Forces in 1965 received the medal, despite having not served in the war.

Even more interesting, and by coincidence I looked today… Here is a decree signed by President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, only today on the 27th of February, 2025! This Ukaz approves the awarding of the new medal that was created in September 2024. Here is another site, which is showing us what the certificate looks like. As we can see, Belarus will keep the ribbon that was in the approved design (unlike Kazakhstan). It is very interesting! Hopefully we can see examples of filled in certificates soon.

Thank you! It seems that these have now been awarded to most of the veterans. Separate news sites in many regions of Russia have reported that their dear veterans have been awarded with the new medal. Furthermore, I was searching elsewhere and found an article from an Armenian news site, about the Uzbek variant medal, which is massively different from the Russian variant. The article can be seen here. This is the Uzbek medal.

Excellent, thank you for your help! I will check these sites out.

Greetings! I am looking at an auction of a Third Reich medal and I believe it could be an original. But I should be aware, just in case! What does everyone think of it? Thanks for help!

For those who want to know more about the man, he is Henryk Jabłoński, who was the 5th Chairman of the Council of State, which replaced Office of President in 1952. Jabłoński was the Head of State from 1972 to 1985.

Here is a list of Generals of the Imperial German Army during WWI. Maybe you could find him there.

Glad to have helped!

Got it, thank you! Hopefully I can find a good one somewhere soon!

Thank you for the help! Would you perhaps know where I can find genuine Grunwald crosses? Or is it really something that rarely appears?

Greetings everyone! Here is my other Finnish medal that I own. Silver 830, with a crown hallmark. Produced in 1979 (B8). I would like to know what the first hallmark means. Perhaps it is the firm that produced the medal? Thanks for any help that can be offered.

I still like these civil and labour awards. Something really nice about them, with a beautiful design! And they can often have a great story behind them too!

I seen these online but I have never known much about Polish ODMs. Are these genuine Grunwald Crosses? Thanks for any help. 1. 2.

I think the johnprice doesn't own the document but found it online. It is currently for sale on EBay.

In Saint Petersburg during the 'Leningrad Victory' concert on the 27th of January 2025, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin handed out the jubilee medal to some of the last living veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Some of these veterans appear to have been awarded personally by the President before, with the Order of Honour. Medals were presented to seven veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Here is a photograph of those medals. Here is the Presidential speech, and award ceremony, for those who are interested to see it. Coming from the official website of the President of Russia. It is available in HD. Something else that is quite interesting: Seen just behind the President during his speech, is the 'Gold Star' Medal of the Hero of the Soviet Union, symbolising the status of the city... the Hero City of Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, of course...) If you want to see, the full concert is available on YouTube. Also in HD.

You are welcome! I also plan to get a good camera, so I should be able to post better photos of the medals here quite soon.

Yes, it would be the central black line. This is the one I retrieved:

I do have some Russian Federation medals from the MoD, some do have this black line. These are the Participant in Syria, and two Distinction medals. I will post them here later on.

Thanks very much for the translations!

Sorry for the low quality images, but this is all that was provided. Here are 2 additions to my collection of DPRK awards! Hopefully this collection will grow. I want to know where these were produced, as I understand there was production in the USSR, Czechodlovakia, so on… Is there any sites in Europe that sell DPRK awards? Thanks for any help that can be given.

It is not an original, I think. It looks like a Voenkomat medal that had the ear sawed off, and soldered to look like a war-time medal, thus more appealing to collectors. You can typically tell it is a Voenkomat by seeing the bubble that is visible between the sailors arm and back, which is a die-flaw seen only on the Voenkomat. Additionally, the reverse on these Defence medals of the Voenkomat variant are all the same. For the Voenkomat, if you look at ‘Д’ in ‘РОДИНУ’, you might see that the bottom stroke is slightly thicker towards the right, than on the left. On the war-time version, it was thinner and more even.

The medal is now beginning to be awarded to the people. A post from sammler-ru confirmed this, with a photograph. A female in Kaliningrad, I believe, was awarded the medal only yesterday, on the 24th of January, 2025. The name is Yekaterina Gerasimovna Pluzhnikova. She received the Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class in 1985, according to Pamyat Naroda. There will also be at least a second variant of the medal, to be awarded in Kazakhstan. This is coming from the website here, of the Ministry of Defence of the Republic of Kazakhstan, therefore is genuine. Here is how it looks…

Thank you so much, I look forward to checking this out!