NavyFCO

Yeah, I think I'll be shooting in the vicinity of about $10,500 for the pair of groups... I think that's about reasonable "collector" (vice "dealer") pricing. I just wish more were available at the moment to compare to! Dave

There are two groups... One has all three glories and the Cavalier document, the other set has two glories (1st and 3rd) with order book (and a nice copy photo of the recipient only wearing the two Glories - the 2nd class was lost and never replaced). What's nice about the sets is that they have 1) consecutively serial numbered 1st class Glories and 2) both the Glory 1sts are two-digit serial numbers. Both sets are researched, with full PMD certificates and the like. Dave

Anyone know what the current value on a Glory 1st trio with Cavalier book would be worth? I've recently been consigned two sets, but don't want to let them go for much less than "market value". Dave

I have embarked on an interesting journey of collecting items from the Czech Legion in Russia, that was there from 1918-1920. I haven't discovered many references out there about it at all, or any other collectors, other than a few random ones that outbid me on eBay. I'm looking for any type of references or good books out there on the subject, either in English, Czech or Russian. Any help is appreciated! Dave

My guess for the pinback is to make it "look" like something someone would wear as a wearing copy. After all, a lot of screwback awards were converted to pinback over the years in order to avoid tearing holes in uniforms and suitcoats, so it would a safe assumption that someone would want a wearing copy Gold Star without the dreaded screwpost. Dave

As far as I'm concerned.... yep.

First off, this is an outright fake, and not one that would be considered a "wearing copy". This award is far too rough for that. Second, the whole "wearing copy" debate has raged in the Soviet awards community for years. Some will insist that they produced them, and even some HSUs have remembered them, but up to this time no one has yet to be able to present one as evidence. I personally have one in my collection which was actually worn by an HSU, but it is a locally made piece that I don't consider to be a "real" wearing copy but rather a one-off that is more of an oddball than anything else. Dave

I think it's a neat group, but it's not really my "thing". I hope no one is dissapointed, but I don't intend to research the group. I've got so many other things that are in my backlog for research that I just have neither the time nor funds to dedicate to a paper-only non-military group, even as neat as it is. As soon as I come back from TDY travel this weekend, it will be looking for a new home. Dave

The collection I bought out had some fun stuff... Here's a photo of a group to MSU Moskalenko...

All: I just picked up these ribbons in the collection I bought This should be a pretty easy set to find the owner of, as he had both the Suvorov 1st and two Kutuzov 1st. I'm guessing that he probably was an HSU as well, and was probably a General Lieutenant at the end of the War (or higher). I think this might be a fun excercise to find out who the original owner of these were! Fire away! Dave

Actually, they are in the correct order. It's just an impossible group, that's all. Dave

And the insides... It's for the 24 June 1945 Victory Day parade in Red Square!!!! Hope you enjoyed these! Dave

Now, ready for the cool one? In 15 years of collecting Soviet militaria, this is the first one of these I have ever seen. I think this may be one of the rarest documents out there and most interesting...

Next, some of his passes. These are some of the neater ones... passes for the 800 Years of Moscow parade, a day pass for the Kremlin, the 1 May 1945 parade on Red Square... There were many more, these were just some of my favorites...

AND, the inside... this guy was pretty stacked!

Next, his order book (the newer one isn't anything spectacular, just another RBL)

And the insides....

First, his Excellence in the Coal Mining Industry documents...

I'm betting that from the title, you can't quite figure out what this thread is about... I just bought out a small collection and these docs were in the lot. After sorting all of these out of the other piles of documents, this became a neat group! This group is to a senior Coal Miner by the name of Gorshkov (no relation to the Admiral, I don't think) Anyway, this guy was hooked-up politically and got to go to all sorts of neat things in Red Square and in the Kremlin. Without further ado, his stuff....

Here's why I don't like this uniform. First, if you were to take away the Navy Cross and the Legion of Merit, this uniform MIGHT be believeable. However, both awards are exceedly rare in the Marine Corps, with the LOM being exceedingly rare amongst enlisted personnel especially. Second, the "norm" for Marine ribbons these days is to wear the ribbons four across with a 1/8 spacing. They don't have to have the spacing, but I've never seen a Marine with this many ribbons and only wearing them three across. Third, a Force Recon Marine who went back and forth from the operational Marine Force Recon teams to Embassy duty? Sounds quite unlikely to me. Where's his Global War on Terrorism Expeditionary Medal? If he was in theater to earn both the theater medals for Afghanistan and Iraq, then he would have been there enough to get a GWOTEM as well. Fifth, where's his JMUC and NUC? Nearly every Marine unit that fought in the first Gulf War (and this guy was there for all but one campaign) was awarded both the JMUC and the NUC. Also, if he were in Iraq and Afghanistan, chances are that one of those units would have gotten at least a NUC. Sixth, if he took part in all the operations stated, especially as a Force Recon guy, I would expect more than two CARs on his chest. One of the Marines that works for me did the first Gulf War, Grenda and Iraq and he has three... if this guy were in all the operations stated (and earned five AFEMs) he'd have more than two CARs. Seventh, he went on all those operations and only ended up with four SSDRs? I don't think that's likely either. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it looks like someone tossed this guy together at the tailor shop. Unless there's a valid name that came with it (and it should be easy to track him down as this guy would have been a Marine Corps legend) I'm going to have to say that this is put together. Dave

I hope you didn't buy this as a "real" uniform as it isn't. It will look pretty cool on display though... Dave

Here's one that's obviously fake (duh). However, it's a beautifully done piece, I think one of the better replica ones of these out there. What this looks like is that a guy is selling someone's collection and the collector bought both original and copy pieces to fill in all the different types in his collection. The fakes tend to be the higher awards, and thus the theory makes sense - he just bought repros of awards he couldn't afford otherwise. Or, he might have bought repros thinking that they were real... never know! Dave

Here's one that the guy is selling that's clearly bad. Look at the milky yellow enamel, the bad red color enamel, the odd gilt... you can go down the list on it...

I can tell you that some of the pieces this fellow is selling are outright fakes, and poor ones at that. Also, looking at some of the auctions that have already closed, some of the bidding is very mysterious, like a $710 OGPW1st? Something doesn't smell right... Dave

Tee hee... That's one of about a half dozen I have currently. Unfortunately, I have to reference all their new owners as I decided to write this as nearly all of them were sold off! Dave