TacHel

You'll find them in the Russian Federation section, just FYI.

Got one! Now to find a bronze one...

Apologies Megs, I erred in my excitement... Single class Order for both men and women. Star with full size badge on sash, or reduced size badge on ladies' bow.

Not quite... Would you believe the South Shore of Montreal?

I picked up this puppy this afternoon at a local gun show. I must admit at not knowing that much about it... Am I correct in my thinking it is a "silver medal for special distinction" as denoted by the rosette on the ribbon and the ladder behind the axes...??

I found pretty fair deals in the past 2 weeks! I picked up these 7 beauties at an average of $10 each...

If I understand correctly, there's also a decoration associated to the order, the decoration is called Decoration "For Beneficence" (or something to that effect). If anybody has more info, pics etc, please share!

President Medvedev signed the decree on May 3, 2012. It ranks just after the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", just above the Order of Alexander Nevsky. Statute: the Order of St. Catherine will be awarded to persons well-known for their high moral and spiritual attitude and compassion, to citizens of the Russian Federation and foreign citizens for outstanding contributions to peacekeeping, humanitarian and charitable activities, for the preservation of our cultural heritage. Breast star of the Order of St Catherine Sash badge of the Order of St Catherine Badge of the Order on ladies bow More to come ASAP.

More reading for you, again in French, just select cut and paste into Google translate. This picture of a French merchant seaman's cap might answer a few questions for you: http://pmm-metz.skyrock.com/2857007594-Casquette-marmar.html The French Navy caps had (dunno if this is still true today) the ranks around the base of the cap. Have a look at this web sight about the history of French naval uniforms, scroll down, you'll see the cap of a commander with 5 bars. Scroll down further, you'll see a belt buckle quite ressembling Haddock's cap badge. http://historic-marine-france.com/uniforme/uniforme.htm

Suggested reading: http://marine-inconnue.blogspot.ca/2011/11/le-mystere-de-la-casquette-du-capitaine.html Nice project! I've been a fan of Haddock for 45 years! :)

The Order for Courage replaced the Order of the Red Banner (for military personnel) and the Order for Personal Courage (for civilians).

I've seen very few dealers that were outright lying to potential buyers about the nature of their items for sale, what I did see in droves though, especially since 1991, are dealers without a clue about what they were selling. With the number of unofficial pieces being produced, I can't really blame them. Пусть покупатель будет бдителен! If you're interested in a modern Russian medal or badge but are unsure about its validity, check out my personnal collector galleries on this forum, or check OMSA's database, 90% of all modern Russian official items are there. Cheers!

The commemoratives given to the families were non governmental (Russian Committee for Public Awards, Russian Awards Committee, and so on). The families initially received awards for the deceased (Hero of Russia, Medals "For Courage", etc) from the governent, it stopped there (for quite understandable reasons)...

Paul, I think I mentioned this in a previous post somewhere... Many Russians build their entire collections around a central, quite specific theme such as the navy, submarines, air force units, customs, etc., whether a piece is official (governmental) or not makes no difference whatsoever. This practice isn't unique to Russia, but from what I've seen in many Russian forums, the percentage of collectors aiming at this over there far outnumbers western collectors. The Russian market is aimed directly at these collectors. Millions of pieces are produced by makers (even by the Moscow mnit!) simply to meet this incredible demand for what are most often, pieces of the highest quality that far outshine their official counterparts. Phil's item in post #13 is a perfect example, no official piece looks that good, and it's nice enough for even non collectors to want to buy it! This Russian forum (of which I'm also a member of) producing these limited pieces is literally a gold mine for such collectors (forum members)! They are quite good at it too, I receive an e-mail detailing new releases on a monthly (sometimes more) basis.

Russian medals... Yes. Medals from the Russian government... Nope. They received medals and badges from non governmental agencies and associations. Why? No idea...

Oddly enough, nobody received anything from the Russian governement. All of the items above, including the very nice one bearing the Norwegian and Russian Navy flags are unofficial, they're all from non governmental organisations.

Ministerial and departmental awards I consider official, but ONLY the ones with a "ministerial order". It's the other crap I can't stand... Airborne vets, Afghanistan vets, Awards Comittee, Jubilee Comittee etc...

Thanks, most medals on that site are unofficial... The official ones on there I already have, yes, all of them. I only require a few more but they're proving to be quite hard to find, even Saslugi doesn't have them.

He's wearing all 4 in the picture in the linked article.

Very nice!

My understanding of the Order of Glory was that you could only get three, one of each class. But here's a veteran with four! Khristenko, Vasily Timofeevich. Order of Glory 1st class # 1794 dated 15 May, 1946 Order of Glory 2nd class # 8964 dated January 24, 1945 Order of Glory 3rd class # 165203 dated November 4, 1944 Order of Glory 3rd class unnumbered dated February 22, 1944. Sorry if the article is in Russian CLICK HERE Is this actually possible?

Incredible... You should really offer your services for book covers, calendars, anything really! Absolutely marvelous work!

Wow... Wow... And if I may add... Wow... An incredible talent! You are a professional graphic artist right? You just don't doodle these works of art for fun do you?

I know, I couldn't resist them anyway... :blush:

I managed to get all 6 medals "For Distinction" of the Russian Federal Security Service! They are, top left to bottom center... Medal for Distinction in Intelligence Medal for Distinction in Safeguarding Economic Security Medal for Distinction in Counterintelligence Medal for Distinction in Information Security Medal for Distinction in the Fight Against Terrorism Medal for Distinction in Border Management