JapanX

+ Actually looking at marauders set three years later I must say that case he showed came from [00s;early 20s] period of time and order from early 30s, so I was wrong when I stated that "this piece came straight from Meiji era"

Another problem - as far as I know manufacturers of orders (and Osaka mint!) always bought cases (and ribbons!) from private companies!

Come on! These are terrible photos, but not that terrible! Hard to judge about enamel colors by these photos. And then this mint mark M. Currently we don't have any proofs that it was used before 1929 either But cases with scrip similar to yours were used after 1929 (see my old thread about box inscriptions at Sammler) Personally I think your order came from much earlier time period than marradeurs.

"What I am trying to do here" - I already explained in post #10. As we both know modern soviet fakes are stamped, have soldered rings and sometimes nicely aged. That's why usually I need to do some "zooming in" to detect them. Probably we simply have different required levels of "zooming in".

I think even by these photos its obvious that marrauders case is much blacker than yours. It is a usual story with black cases from early 1890s-early 1920s period of time. They have this slight redness at the edges of the case

If you say so ;)

The only question: how quickly this "certain point" is reached If 600 dpi scan looks this way after posting, then the only solution is to make close-ups of medal and even close-ups of certain parts of medal. I've just checked my recently posted 1200 dpi scans - they look pretty much like your scans in post #1 Rick, be serious! Simply post photos of Jeep here and you will be on the safe side ;)

Looks like we find the owner! What's up Igor? Thanks for these scans. Yes, rim has same color, so it's not a simple consequence of burning-out process. So either someone made a mistake and instead of black lacquered case made a chocolate one (I have serious doubts that this is possible, but why not?) or something happened with this case (hostile environment? reaction to chemicals? mistake in lacquer composition?). Whatever cause was - I like the result! :lol:

Undoubtedly! P.S. Simply download your own pictures and then try to examine small details - like letters, soldering of the ring, handle of the sickle etc.

This medal was made before 1947, but was issued somewhere around 1955. For example medal 3 590 717 was issued on April 25, 1955 and 3 638 305 was issued on December 3, 1955.

By these scans looks like original "round grind-off ear" variation.

By these scans everything looks ok. P.S. Rick, why such blur scans of medals? Epson can do much better! Is it because you are a) compressing them before posting or b) using automatic regime? If a) then you overdo it (not to mention that GMIC automatically compresses photos these days. If b) then maybe it's time to use other regimes with 600-800 dpi resolution. Just a thought :whistle:

Major in reserve Kondrashev Vladimir Ilyich Stamp of military commissariat of Armenian SSR

Looks like somebody wore this one quite enthusiastically... Even additional tether! This somebody was overcautious :whistle:

Lieutenant Saiyan Yervand Grigorievich/Caйан Ерванд Григорьевич Stamp of Military unit 23696 Signed by Commander of military unit 23696 lieutenant colonel Zhohov/Жохов

You guys ... You don't believe in nothing! Yes, maybe there are some inconsistencies here and there ... So what?! It's Christmas time for God's sake!!! You should be boozed up, happy and ready to buy

They call them in Russia "рарик"

100 bucks and it is yours! That is if you buy it from the "core source"

And of course 8th awarding

And another one with same number

7 awarding number 1