Chuck In Oregon

This second one really is a graduation jeton, but lacking the small chain. It is from Tbilisi Gymnasium #6, Class of 1919. It is neither proofed or maker marked but it appears to be silver to me. I know the scan doesn't look silver, but that is mostly the scanner light reflection. This jeton is particularly interesting to me because it comes from Georgia's brief period of independence after the civil war. That period was eliminated from all histories after the Soviets captured Tbilisi in 1921 and today many Georgians don't know it ever existed. This design retains an eagle motif, but a single-headed one and, significantly, there is no crown. The eagle, wreath and letters retain some gilt, so this was once a gold design on a silver background with blue enamel. Nice.

I've been meaning to add on to this thread forever, but I've just never gotten around to it. There must be millions of these interesting graduation jetons around, but I've only come across a very few. Here are two. The first one is, well, it's a silver graduation pin rather than a jeton, but I think it fits here nevertheless. It is a 1914 graduation pin -- Class of 1914 -- from Tbilisi Gymnasium #3. If you look closely enough, all of a sudden the highly stylized Т and Г (T and G) and the 3 will suddenly become recognizable to you. I think that the XXI is the number of years that the school had been in existence by then. The pin is both proof marked (84) and maker marked.

And here are the reverses ...

As I was re-reading some PMs, it occurred to me that I have been remiss by not responding to a request for early Soviet police badges. Well, I'm not one to make others beg, so here are four. If I come across any more, I'll post them here, too. Only the one on the bottom right came home with me this trip. I've had the others for a while. The bottom right badge is a Georgian variant of a known Russian badge, or at least a known design. However, I believe that this variant may be uncataloged and unknown in the west. Please feel free to correct me if I'm mistaken about that. This one appears to be silver and the shield number is a separate piece attached at the bottom of the design.

Here are the pilot's wings I had hoped to bring back with me and that I previously wrote about. They are a gold variant of the wings shown in Avers-5, page 83, item 23, "Военный лётчик" or military pilot. They are 56 proof gold and they weigh 14.80 grams with the screwback and plate removed. They bear the "Eduard" master's mark. The screwback and plate are silver and the plate also bears the Eduard mark. Like some other things I own and have written about, this badge is from a member of the Machavariani family in Georgia, in this case one Mikhail Machavariani. They were Georgian royalty -- dukes, mostly -- back in the day. I have several nice things that were once owned by Machavarianis. A few escaped after the civil war, a couple even changing their name and moving to Moscow. That would have been a little too close to the gallows for me. This Mikhail Machavariani was initially an officer of the 39th Artillery Brigade of the city of Alexandropol. During WW I he became the commander of one of the Aviation Squadrons on the Caucasus front, possibly Squadron #1, but not for sure. This badge came with his khindjal with a St. Anna-4th Class attached. I'll post it later on.

With any luck, this will be a somewhat enlarged and enhanced image of that single small photo. His Khalkhingol badge is evident. His family told us that he was arrested shortly after the war and imprisoned for a year, 1945-46. He was then released and rehabilitated and his record was cleared. When the government returned his awards, according to the family, one Red Star and his Khalkhingol badge were missing and he never replaced them. Chuck

The interiors of those documents.

The remaining three items with their documents.

The last bilet page with an entry.

These next three are just the remaining pages of his bilet that have any entries on them.

Here's the documentation of his Khalkhingol service.

I think these were his assignments.

And the next page. He had an interesting military career.

And here's the first page of each of them.

While I was in Tbilisi recently, we re-contacted this gentlemen's heirs and asked them if they might, just possibly, have anything else we could include in this group. They came up with his officer's military bilet (very interesting), his pension book, his 50-Year Communist Party Member badge (he joined in 1931) and document, his Veteran of Military Labor medal and document and his Excellent Civil Defense medal and document. I'll share them here, of course, but I warn you, there just might be too much detail here to keep you interested. Here's the first image of the military bilet and pension book.

Geez Ed, you make me feel like such a slacker. Well, yeah, I am but you don't have to make me feel like it. You did a great job of giving us the story of these badges and I really appreciate it. Your post is now a research document of mine. My bags finally arrived yesterday and this medal and document was in one of them.

* * * * * Hi Doc These are just some things I already had lying around here. I hadn't noticed any interest before so I hadn't bothered with them much. I'm happy to share these and to appreciate what others have shared here. I sold a couple of nice ones in a documented labor group not long ago, but that's the only real interest I've seen. Chuck

And here are some related badges and pins. The one on the top right says "USSR" above"The New York World's Fair 1939". Must either be a exhibition souvenir or a worker or volunteer's pin, I guess.

Here are a few variations. I don't have the undated, numbered silver variation and I've not seen one. I have the undated, unnumbered silver version plus these others. The second from the top row left is a VDNK Laureate's badge. The two bottom left are awards for something I don't quite understand, something like For Success as a People's Manager/Host or something like that. I ruled out People's Mistress, but hey, what do I know? The two on the bottom right are VDNK junior participant awards.

It looks like I missed some interesting topics while I was gone. I can't remember (but that's fairly common) seeing this topic discussed on a forum before. I had never seen one of the solid gold badges before and I was unaware that they existed. Thanks for sharing that one. Here are a couple of 1939 badges and a dated and numbered silver 1939 medal. I know that my lost baggage contains at least one VDNK medal with its document. Chuck

Here are the first two things I'll share from the big group that I just brought home. Both are unusually oversized silver badges compared to badges that we are already familiar with. I think that the ODVF badge is the Transcaucasus Federation variant of a known Russian badge. I think that the ZakAvia badge is a TransCaucasus Federation pre-Aeroflot commercial aviation badge. ZakAvia existed only from 1923-1925. I believe that both of these badges may be uncataloged and otherwise unknown in the west. I doubt that many other examples could still exist. However, if you own either of them or have even seen them somewhere before, please let me/us know about it. Enjoy. Chuck

* * * * * 1500 y.e. ... is that dollars??!! Euros??!! If it is, I can still get that example in Tbilisi if I want it. I just never thought I would. Dang, I never thought things would go so high. Good if you're selling, horrible if you're buying. Guess I'll look for my example here at home a little harder now.

<<Did Imperial Russia have a 25 year Long Service Award similar to the Prussian one?>> I know I'm a late responder to this thread, but there was this one. No, not similar to the item in question, but just to remind that such an award did exist. Chuck

<<Russian officers were required to belong to the Orthodox religion. >> Are you quite sure that such a requirement existed? I asked an historian in Tbilisi about this the other day and he said that there was no such requirement, citing the religious affiliations of so many nationalities that served under the tsars' banners. He is fallible, of course, and could not prove a negative, but I thought I'd pass along his comment. Chuck

Yeah, I know, off topic ... but I know I've got a silver Honored Railwayman example around here somewhere, but I can't seem to put my finger on it right now. I saw one for sale in Tbilisi the other day for -- are you sitting down? -- $200 firm. I passed. Meanwhile, here's a modest NKPC-MPC documented set. This is one of the very few documented sets that I have ever come across. It's even more interesting, to me at least, that it spans the Narkomat-Ministry time periods. This guy liked the nickle-plated look, I guess. I once thought I'd collect the Soviet RR theme, but then I guess I lost interest in it, at least to the extent that it came behind my other interests. I know that it's a pretty popular and interesting theme to study and collect. I even have an enamel Soviet RR sign on one of my desks here. Say, do we not have a RR badges thread around here somewhere? If not, we should. Will it put us back on-topic if I write "Turkmenistan" somewhere? Just thought I'd ask. I apologize for stepping on the topic here. Chuck