Lapa

Eric, Each year, there is a big reenacting party in the Czech Republic; I am not too sure, but I believe that it is the Austerlitz battle. These are most likely to come from there. Marc

Bryan, You realize that quite a few of the medals you show have replacement/fake suspensions, don't you? Marc

Kevin, The French have a long tradition - since the early 1600's at least - of issuing medals commemorating specific events. All of them were struck at the Paris Mint. Now, there is a slight twist to the story, namely that the Mint still retains all of the original dies. In other terms, you can order today a restrike of, say, a Louis XIV medal, and they will do it (at of cost, of course). The key to identifying originality and period of strike is the presence or absence of those pesky mintmarks on the edge, and when present, which on it actually is. Marc

Stogieman, This document is a diploma for completing a course of training (Sport Instructor in Wrestling). I don't believe that the recipient was given a badge with this diploma. Marc

Hipnos, That is a 3rd class that has been "upgraded". The original SN was erased (a bid sloppily as you can still make up the leftover of a digit at the left of the fake SN), then the faker engraved the new SN; interestingly, he engraved it with a strong slant in order to reuse and cover the traces of the erased digits. Marc

Miguel, The scarcest variety of the lot is the highest numbered one, 801577. Marc

Verdun16, Nice one Could you please post the first pages of the award booklet. Marc

Here we go, Christophe. If you don't mind, I propose to bend the rules a little bit for this one question, in order to try and attract new blood to the quizz: I propose that until Thursday 12/6 24:00 GMT, only those who have never participated to our quizz be allowed to answer it; from 13/6 at 00:01 GMT, it will be fair game for all. So, that being said, this should be an extremely simple question. In the 1980's, two journalists from different sides of the Iron Curtain came up with - let's call it - "an innovative concept". 1. What was the name of that "concept" 2. Who were those two journalists? (please try and provide a succinct biography) Happy hunting Marc

And the reverse

Right, Guys, let's play "Spot the differences" and you should be able to readily understand what I mean Marc

Rick, This one is legitimate. A couple of years ago, leftovers were sold at the Mint shop in St Petersburg. Marc

It would be, if... Marc

Apparently, I must be one of the few unlucky ones, as no one made me any on or off-line favors (yet... ) Marc

Dan, Congratulations on this good answer, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask the next question (yeah, right... ) Give me a few moments to think of something interesting. Marc

Rick, Most likely, the original entries were chemically "washed away" in such a way as to not erase or damage the underprint, then new entries were written. For a long time already, fakers do not mechanically remove writing as it is too obvious to detect. Marc

Rick, It is more than a simple ID pass, it happens to be his Military ID, the forerunner to the Voenniy Bilet. Marc

Elmar, Off hand, I can't tell you. I'll have a look around and let you know. Marc

Point in case Marc

Rick, Let's try to keep passion and opinions out of this debate, if we can. Now, can you please show me concrete evidence of what you wrote above in the quote. I have been living in Russia for the best part of the past 7 years, and I cannot for the life of me find anything in print or in video which states what you say, other than opinions. Since the claim is "so well established" and incriminates the Government itself, it must be based upon a declaration by a top official, or some ministry publication, or ??? Marc

Eric, It means that this is a miniature, not the full-sized cross. Amazing nevertheless Marc

Elmar, I think that so far, everyone has provided the actual bits and pieces of this puzzle. First, we need to remember one thing: the law is country specific (despite what some may believe/think). This means that Russian Law applies everywhere on Russian territory, but only on Russian territory. If you are not there, you must abide by your local law, not that of a foreign country (hence, for instance, you can legally buy and sell a US Medal of Honor in Italy or in Peru). Next the issue of stolen orders and medals. I believe that this is actually the heart of the matter at hand. Let's try and keep politics and opinions aside, and try to have a depassionate look at this issue. Some Soviet orders and medals have been stolen from: a) their actual recipients (some of them - Admiral Kholostyakov for example - being murdered in the process) b) the State Award Repository (OMDs either not issued and/or numbered) c) various museums, from the largest one - Central Museum of the Armed Forces in Moscow- down to small countryside museums d) collectors and others - these are irrelevant to this discussion Like it or not, the fact is that some orders in our collections do come from the first 3 categories. What is the problem with these? They have been stolen from their rightful owners. The Russian Ministry of Culture has recently published a fairly lavish book that lists all the serial numbers of such stolen orders and medals (I had it in my hands, A4 format and a couple of hundred pages) with details about their disappearance. As far as I know, in most countries - and especially so in the US, if I accurately recall my legal classes - title cannot be released and transfered on stolen goods; I find it somewhat ironic when it is argued that: No! In this case, we are NOT kidding, it is indeed the State's business (actually, multiple states are/should be involved). If we look back impartially on the Sotheby's fiasco, we must remember that the Russian government did not ask that all lots of Soviet OMDs on that auction be withdrawn; they requested that specific lots be withdrawn, lots which happened to fall into one of the first 3 categories I outlined above - for example, the Order of Ushakov 1st class #125, which was unissued and had been "liberated" from the Order repository. Until recently we were standing in the dark, with no way to know if our orders and medals were legitimate or if they were stolen property. Since the Ministry of Culture published its list, the situation has drastically changed, although no one really seems to care about that. I hope that this clears up somewhat the issue. Marc

Alex, It is, and a nice one too Marc

???

Could someone please provide some less cryptic clues for those of us not overly knowledgeable as to the identity of this dealer. Marc

Eric, You are right, this type of medal was usually issued unnumbered. In this case, it was a catch up issue for a medal that was awarded during WW2. In other words, this is a legitimate duplicate issue. Marc