TacHel

Extremely interesting collection Ed! Thanks for sharing! And just think of it, an entirely new series of Afghan medals to choose from since the return to democratic rule! You must be giddy as a school girl just thinking about it huh? -Awaiting thunder and lightning- :rolleyes:

It's actually more than that. Like Roman mentioned, the quality of the enamels alone is quite different.

I'm old and foolish... Where does that leave me? When the Berlin wall fell, and the Soviet Union went the way of the dodo... All the hatred that had been bottled up yet kept alive through generations resurfaced and so many of the old pre WW1 lines were redrawn in Europe that anybody with the slightest knowledge of history could only sigh and say "here we go again". Never before (IMHO) has a knowledge of our history been so important to prevent the bloody 20th century from repeating itself again... And again... And again... In my many travels through the years I've found people the World over to be dang near exactly alike... If it wasn't for politicians that merge their pride and egos to the nation's... We'd have a lot less problems! And that's all I have to say about that... Want a chocolate? :cheers:

In French we say "аферист"

The only ribbon that I know that resembles that is the Russian medal for Eifer (Nicholas II). But what are the odds of that?

:banger: Cпасибо... Я не сержусь... Возможно немного, против продавца...

Here's a bigger scan of mine... I won't be offended at all if it turns out to be a copy Roman. Disappointed but not offended.

Thanks for the info! And by the way, your English is better than my Russian. But I'm learning!

Aaaaaaaaaaaah... And, CRAP! That looks familiar... Thanks Roman.

These guys only sell copies of Imperial awards though... Nice quality stuff too. Nice enough to fool some unwary buyers!

Oh!?! Both?!? (Sorry, I thought we weren't on the same channel here) The dark blue one is really nice... The green one... YUCK! A bit of overkill wouldn't you say? So why 2 different uniforms for the same unit? When is the green one used as compared to the blue one?

I hope somebody here can enlighten me on Cossacks. I see Cossack medals for sale everywhere... Are these medals governmental? (By that I mean official). What exactly are Cossacks (today)?

I think we don't understand each other here Roman... Post #4 is which? Post #7 is which?

I had seen the new Presidential Regiment's uniform, looks really sharp. But what about your post #4? Is that the new uniform for the Army Honour Guard? (Ministry of Defense)

Seems like a heck of a lot of work in making an intricate and enameled copy for an award that is easily accessible for a mere $150 to $200... But heh, I'll take better and closer scans and post them. After all, the aim here is to learn and share that knowledge.

Is that the new uniform for honour guards? :speechless1:

OK... Why?

LMAO!

Just found myself a nice low (enough) number (#2640) example! :beer:

Just a shot in the dark, my German is a bit rusty... You might want to look up the name: Thrien (also Von Thrien). It's a popular name in Germany and Austria and I do believe that's what is written there.

What might help to explain so many inter ministerial awards is the fact many sub department and special units were transferred between ministries.

You haven't seen the 1/2 of it... Go check out this Wiki page I've been working on for the past 14 months.

Inside of the docs.

I don't understand that... The award document of an official award has not only an "official stamp" but also the identification of the Ministry both on the cover and inside the document. Unofficial awards have bare document covers and at no place is a ministry identified inside, add to that the fact their stamps clearly identify a non governmental organization... The wearer really didn't look at all or simply doesn't care. For such a highly decorated colonel to do this really doesn't say much about the system. Look at the pics below, each "OFFICIAL" award document has the Ministerial emblem on the cover, here we have the Defense Ministry, Interior Ministry and the Federal Border Service. Look at the 2 documents (inside sheets), they both have the ministerial stamps clearly identifying the ministry, non governmental awards have nice stamps too but are clearly non governmental. Also, you'll also notice the full name of the ministry is inside the document. How can people miss this?? Especially serving members of the armed forces. In my opinion, they fully know these are crap awards and still wear them.

Roman, once again you grace us with a GREAT picture! This member of the FSB has quite the rack! -2 X Orders of Valour; -2 X Order of Military Merit; -Medal For Service To The Fatherland 1st Class With Swords; -Medal For Service To The Fatherland 2nd Class With Swords; -Medal for Bravery; -FSB Medal for Distinction during Special Operations; -FSB Medal for Participation in Counterterrorism Operations; -Medal for the 200th Anniversary of the Interior Ministry (I think); Then it sours a bit... The next 2 awards are garbage (unofficial) trinkets. -The VOOV Combat Brotherhood Medal (garbage); -The Caucasus Medal from the Russian Awards Committee... (Garbage, commercial trinket); -All 3 medals for distinguished service, 10, 15 and 20 yers of service. Why would such a distinguished and highly decorated member of the FSB lower himself to wearing those 2 "Xmas tree ornaments"??