TacHel

This thread will be used to show recent cons, swindles and straight lies people use to make you purchase worthless crap. By worthless crap I mean non governmental / unofficial medals that range right into souvenirs bought by the road side... No names will be posted but I'll try to get good enough pictures so you'll recognize a con when you see one. The reason I'm doing this is that more and more dealers and eBay sellers are now lying through their teeth with alarming regularity in order to unload junk they purchased at low price deep in Eastern Europe. As the Russian authorities increase their crackdown on medal producers in the Federation, you can expect a veritable deluge of bogus awards to soon start flooding the Western market. Always be weary... Ask, read, have a beer...

Are CDs and SSMs now coined or is it only a better quality casting and plating job?

Thanks for the info! Very much appreciated. You beat me to the punch, my next question was going to be "why are the swords pointing down?". They are now pointing up. As for the difference in suspension, there's another difference I've just noticed... On mine, the bend on the lower suspension goes backwards to hide the seem. See pic below. On yours, oddly enough, the seem is visible at the front... Could yours be mounted backwards? I'm just suggesting this due to the fact it makes no sense to show joints when you don't have to...

LMAO... Anything acquired for nothing or too easily has, IMHO, no personal value. On the flip side though, anything earned and not recognized, is just as bad. Unfortunately, governments Worldwide seem to jump from one extreme to the other and very rarely opt for the logical middle ground, and this, in just about EVERY topic.

I should buy a hat like that, seems to protect the hair really well. This guy's been dead 150 years and he still has more hair than I!... ;)

Well hey... I'm an air force senior NCO and it just so happens, a Weight & Balance expert holding the job of squadron W&Bal officer and having rewritten 2 of our technical orders for our entire helo fleet. But I'm no loadmaster... I can't stand those guys! Glorified supply techs in a flight suit that think they're God's gift to air power. But I digress... But I agree with the "2 weights - 2 measures" term. It unfortunately is prevalent in many services, I've even seen it here in Canada. When they redid the Canadian awards system to move it away from the British awards system, they kept Orders and Decorations in for years because certain generals wore them. Within a month of said general's retirement, lo and behold, an amendment would come out removing the Order from the Canadian list. This happened with the D.F.C., the O.B.E. and the Victorian Order is still in for the officers! Total BS! The last straw (for me anyway) that came out a few years ago, and in my opinion the most obscene to date, was that only foreign medals bestowed by a head of state could be worn on a Canadian military uniform. Just so happens that historically, in 99,9% of cases, an officer, due to higher responsibilities will receive a slightly higher grade of an award than an NCO. So they basically told the officers to wear foreign Orders while preventing the NCOs from doing the same. Absolute BS! As an example, an NCO on exchange in the USA might return with a Commendation or an Achievement medal, these are bestowed in the name of the Secretary of Defense IE can't wear them. Officers as a rule will rarely return with less than a Meritorious Service Medal who's bestowed in who's name? The President of course... What a coincidence. Anyway... Just venting here. :rolleyes:

Are these swords actually OK? If so, what do they mean?

Musical chairs would be simpler IMHO. I've enrolled in 5 different Russian language phaleristic forums in the past year. NOBODY has a clue! I've asked Russian soldiers, same thing. When I direct them to my Wiki page to see if they can add info, they always come back saying they learned a lot... It's enough to make me weep! The mixing of Soviet and Federation ODMs is bad enough, but when there's absolutely no order in their wear, and to boot they slap in non governmental awards among them... Not to mention "tsarist" Orders bestowed by Grand Duchess "whatshername"... It's enough to lose one's bearings to say the least. The worst culprits are the generals... It's unreal to see some of their medal bars. I wish I could find more pics of NCOs, so far, they're the only ones wearing ODMs in a logical way.

And I don't really care about that... Well I might if there was any semblance of an order above that... But... There's no order of precedence for Orders! None for State Decorations and Commemoratives! I have pics of officers wearing State Awards BEHIND long service medals! There's no real order of precedence within any particular ministry unless we ourselves place the awards in a logical manner based on Western standards. Logically, it should look like this: State Orders top to bottom State Decorations top to bottom State Commemoratives top to bottom Members own Ministry's awards top to bottom Awards of other ministries/departments (with an order of precedence of ministries) Foreign awards (if allowed for wear)

Can you tell me a little more please? Is the Order defunct?Only bestowed in the Congo Belge? Addenda: here's a pic for those who are wondering what we're talking about.

Please check this medal on sale on eBay.be Looks like the a silver medal of the Crown Order but the ribbon is slightly different and so is the obverse of the medal. 360174700939 I've never seen this before and can't find anything on it either.

WOAH! Brit soldiers actually wore these? Check it out on this web site Simply scroll down until you see the used mop/used vacuum cleaner bag... DANG!

I didn't know either so I checked... -CLICK HERE- NOTE: Mervyn must be REAAALLY old to even know of this offhand huh? ;)

Welcome to GMIC! Nice pictures, thank you for sharing. Did your father leave any other pictures of mementos of his time in the service?

The veteran's medal (25 years of service) bearing the new emblem.

The new departmental emblem.

The Federal Border Service of Russia is no more. Quick history -30 December 1993 - "un posted decree 2318" President Yeltsin abolishes the Border Troops of the Security Ministry and establishes the General Command of the Russian Federation Border Troops. -30 December 1994 – Renamed Federal Border Service of Russia. -2002/2003 – Renamed Border Service of the Russian Federation. -11 March 2003, by decree 308, President Putin transfers the Border Service of the Russian Federation into the Federal Security Service (FSB). So the Federal Border Service of Russia is no more, it is a sub department of the FSB called the Border Service of Russia's FSB ( Пограничной службы ФСБ России). What does this mean for collectors? It means an entirely new set of decorations and medals bearing the emblem of the new service such as the Cross for service in the Far East seen blow.

As anybody found a chart displaying the order of precedence of Russian Federation awards yet? I don't mean just for the Orders and State Decorations, I mean including ministerial and departmental awards. I keep seeing pictures of Russian servicemen of all ranks wearing their gongs in the most ludicrous illogical manner imaginable and it's driving me nuts! Somebody somewhere must've slapped one together... If you find one, even a partial one... PLEASE contact me, I'll be soooo grateful.

I'm going waaaay out on a limb here. A complete shot in the dark. Naval uniforms could be seen anywhere a ship went. Add a colonial uniform suggesting (maybe) Africa... Could the "pudgy boy scout" actually be a non German? A Boer? A British border/police/scout official? Like I said, waaaay out on a limb.

That was my original thought, a souvenir from a comms/sigs unit. But why a garter? Any connection to the Order?

Sweet badge! I think this is the most detailed 57er I've seen to date!

Absolutely SUPERB! Congrats on a GREAT set! Thanks for sharing!

Yes Rick... P-L-E-A-S-E tell us you took pictures! And let's see them!

So many of those INCREDIBLE shots have NEVER BEFORE been published. So many great pics have been lost to history, a book or series of books containing these great shots would ensure their survival for posterity.

#1 Is marked COTAM, this stands for "COmmandement du Transport Aérien Militaire" (Military Air Transport Command). It is the badge of the "Centre Opérationel du Transport Aérien Militaire" (Military Air Transport Operational Center) at air base #107 Villacoublay.