Chuck In Oregon

Wow, that's a really nice Turk-Sib RR badge. First one I've ever seen. Did you find that one in the wild? That is a nice piece for any advanced Soviet RR collection. Chuck

Money? As I have been known to comment before playing certain games of skill and chance: "Oh, can you play this for money?" And BTW ... I told you guys that a couple of my questions were going to be a little, um, obscure. But no, you just had to have them here, so don't blame me now. Is there an evil cackling icon? I got home last night and no sooner did I sit down in the living room than I passed out from exhaution. That trip is a killer. I really do love my friends in Georgia and I love what we're doing together for the orphans, but after each trip I am tempted to say "No more." I brought a ton of things with me to share here as well to sell later on. Unfortunately, my bags took another route. United assures me that they will catch up to me today, but I always worry. It happens maybe a third of the time these days. I had my best collectibles in my carry-on, so they made it home with me. Naturally, that will catch an inspection at every scanner along the way and cause some delays. No problems, though. Well, except for losing the check-in bags. I have a fairly large box of "lesser" (but still nice) collectibles and all my photos and documents in one of those bags. I can always replace the clothes and toiletries, but not the collectibles. Especially the photos and docs. Those photos include two propaganda photos (the originally distributed photos, straight from state archives) that will be a natural for this thread, should the day ever come when it's my turn again. I will be sorely disappointed if it takes more than an hour to ID the individual. No, not a rock star or martyr or funny-looking watch. This person is actually in our books. 'Nuff said, and I'm determined to win again one of these days. Good to be back and I'm looking forward to even more participation here at GMIC. The move of this thread to this forum surprised me a little, as I really only frequent two forums now, and occasionally The Lounge. Probably the additional exposure is good for me. Say, who's good with WW I Polish regimental badges here? I picked a nice one up along with a few other things from one guy in Tbilisi and I know absolutely nothing about them. At least, I think that's what it is. A silver eagle on a red-and-white stylized cross with the number 1915 at the bottom. Naturally, I'll post it here eventually, but I thought someone might know it just by a simple description. I'll try to start posting a few of my new things today and later this week. Some of you have kept in touch and asked me about them I think you will enjoy and learn from some of them. I know that I have. Otherwise, I guess, what's the point? So what's been going on with you guys? Chuck

I seem to vaguely recall that the Turkmenbashi changed the names of the days and months to his names and those of his family. As in, "I'll be back on Fred, the 15th of Johnny." Also, that he had built the largest gold statue in the world. Does that sound close to correct? I know that he wears a large black diamond ring. A friend of mine gave it to him. I have occasionally run with some darn big dogs for an old country boy from Oregon. Go figure. I'm outa here in, let's see, make it 9-1/2 hours. Chuck

There is an entire series of this particular design, with different centers for various sports. I have seen one large display of them and several smaller displays. For someone who is interested in acquiring a large but relatively inexpensive collection, and who is sports-minded, this wouldn't be a bad theme to start out with. They display very nicely. Sometimes you see the center removed from an original and attached to something entirely unrelated. Yuck. BTW, I think that the variation with a shooter design in the center -- standing, prone, sitting, whatever -- is for an event winner, not a military shooting qualification badge. I have a few in my shooting awards collection. And yes, I did pick up a couple of nice things in that field this trip, 2-3 badges and a tsarist watch award with an accompanying document (but not related to the watch). You're gonna love a few of my new things. Chuck ... 19 hours to go

Isn't that a "Third Place" military sportsman's award? In this case, for some running event or the other? Why haven't we ever started a sports awards thread, hmmmm? I leave here in 32 hours, but who's counting? I'm bringing some interesting things back with me and I hope to start sharing by, maybe, Sunday. Chuck

Hello Gentlemen Just an update to say that I'm OK and I'll be home next Saturday evening. This continues to be a fascinating place to visit. Last night I had dinner with the uncle of the president of Azerbaijan. He invited me to come to Baku this Tuesday-Thursday. That was a hard invitation to turn down but I had to. Maybe one of these days. He's an interesting guy with quite a unique background. I have found some great items for my collections as well as a bunch for re-sale. I bought that gold air fleet badge and it came with ... a khindjal with a St. Anna mounted on the grip. It's a nice set but hideously expensive. I have also seen some great things that aren't available for sale. For instance, today I was visiting a collector friend and I happened to mention that I had never seen a Labor Glory - 1st Class. He got up and brought back a fully documented Labor Glory Cavalier set plus a Labor Star and Lenin, all to the same guy. Did I mention that he has all the documents? No, not for sale at any price. I also held one of the very oversized Nicholas II solid gold excellent service medals. A guy could drown wearing that thing. Also not for sale. Both orphanages are doing OK, all things considered. I'll try to update our website when I come home. It is way out of date. The kids are reasonably healthy and their classes are going OK. We do what we can. I'll be sharing some things on the forums once I get back and get used to being on PDT. The time changes are always difficult for me. Chuck

Gentlemen I went to Tbilisi's Vake National Park Victory Day celebration today. I got a lot of pictures of bemedalled veterans (I'll share after I get back home) and I met a bunch of old WW II veteran friends I had made at previous Victory Days. I am just one of the guys there now to them. We even managed to give out a few of the pictures where we hadn't been able to find the people before. I met and chatted up an ex-Soviet WW II major general and a lot of other old vets. My Russian is at a level that I can communicate reasonably comfortably without feeling too much like a fool, as long as I have someone to bail me out when I get stumped, which happens often. I got within 5-6 feet of president Saakashvili and I got a few pictures of him and speaker Burjanadze. There was a large Ukrainian delegation there this year, presumably as a show of revolutionary brotherhood, Rose and Orange Revolutions. The Russian ambassador was there but he was extremely low key, stayed in the shadows, literally, and said nothing in public. Things here are extremely tense these days. So it's getting a little late, shortly after noon, and Sopo sees this older Soviet Air Force vet walking up the steps to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier where we were standing. She asked him if I could take his picture and he said sure. So I took a couple of pictures and I was chatting him up as best I could in Russian and I asked him if he was a pilot. (Duh.) He said, quite proudly, that he was and he started telling me what his medals were for. I told him that I had been an Army pilot in Vietnam. He says "Really? Me, too." Turns out, he flew for the NVAF for six freakin' years as a transport pilot and advisor. He asked me if I had ever heard of a place called Khe Sanh. Well, yeah, maybe the biggest battle of the war, certainly one of the biggest. Well, he hauled troops, artillery and, at the end, paratroopers into Khe Sanh before and during the battle. BTW, I didn't even know the NVA had paratroopers, but I guess I'll have to believe him. He oughta know. I am standing there chatting with a guy who fought on the other side. It was unreal, one of the strangest experiences of my life. I knew there were such guys around here but this is the first one I have ever met. And we were laughing and hugging each other like the best of old friends. Now Sopo and I are going to meet him and his wife on Saturday here at the hotel. I am going to try to get his story and write it up. He was a military pilot for 31 years. He's going to bring along some photo albums for me to look at, too. I wish I could do the same. I am really looking forward to it. That's how my Victory Day has gone so far. I hope yours was equally rewarding and meaningful. Chuck

Hello All I've been in Tbilisi since last Monday at 3 AM. I thought I'd let you know how things are here on the collecting front. The bad news is, prices continue to skyrocket. You have to experience it to believe it. The price of precious metals and the fall of the dollar are big contributing factors, as well as the fact that a lot more Moscow dealers are prowling Tbilisi in search of inventory. Most people seem to know the prices of gold and silver to the latest penny per gram and Moscow dealers seem to have endless amounts of money to spread around. There are also more fakes here than there used to be. Early on, that wasn't much of a problem here at all. Let me give you an example. I passed on a nice group in 2003 for $3K. I just couldn't believe it was worth that, so I just walked away. I learned a couple of days ago that it recently re-sold for $10K. What a shocker. When newly-acquired collectibles hit the market in the west they are going to demand ever-higher prices until someday, I suppose, the bubble bursts. Until then, a rising tide floats all boats. Ordinary items are going up fast, fine items are simply unbelieveable. I used to pay $35-$50 for an early silver numbered Excellent Railwayman badge. I just saw one for a firm asking price of $200. I thought he was joking, but no. What that means for our hobby is something you will have to decide for yourselves. It can't be good. OTOH, those prices -- and the seemingly out-of-control rising cost of living here and elsewhere in the FSU -- are bringing family heirlooms and collections to market far more frequently than before. I have already bought some nice things -- yes, at the new prices -- and I am certain to find some more. Much more, in fact, than I anticipated. I bought a large silver Transcaucasus Air Fleet badge that I have never seen before and the Georgian variant of an early Friends of the Air Fleet badge. Both are in excellent condition and surprisingly over-sized. It may be that neither is catalogued or has been seen in the west. It looks like I may get that early gold Transcaucasus Air Fleet commander's badge that I have been working on for several months. Yes, outrageously high prices, but what are you going to do? Those things are going in my own collection. I have found some very nice items in areas that aren't particular interests of mine and I'll offer those for sale sometime after I get back home. I know I'll be viewing a nice Imperial collection next week, too, and I expect to buy it if the price is somewhere within the new reality. I don't get much computer time here, so don't expect much in the way of frequent updates or replies until I get back. Best regards, to all, Chuck

I was shutting down my computer in preparation for my departure this afternoon when I remembered that I hadn't finished this. I'm sorry. I once wrote an essay called "The Watch That Went To Moscow". Here's the gist of it. When I bought this watch it was just an empty case and a bag full of loose parts and the face. I was only attracted by the case. Some friends in the senior Georgian diplomatic corps took this watch to the factory near Moscow and met with the factory director. He was very surprised to see it. He said they only know of one other example and that is the one in their factory museum. According to him, this watch was a presentation piece to the senior Gosplan officials who prepared the first five-year plan. They agreed to bring it back to as near new condition as they could. They even scrounged some parts from their exhibit watch to repair this one. The only thing they couldn't replace or fix was the crystal. They were going to give us (my friends) a nice factory letter about the history of the watch. However, when they realized that the watch would be going back to Georgia they became very irate. They threatened to call the militia to prevent that from happening and they refused to turn the watch back over. My friends answered that they were, after all, accredited diplomats and they would be happy to call the militia for them but they were definitely taking the watch back with them right then. Well, they did, but as you can imagine the director wasn't a happy man. So much for the nice factory letter. OK, I'm outta here for three weeks. Someone else will have to step up with the next question. I'll log in while I'm in Tbilisi if I get the chance. Chuck

You know, on further review, that doesn't appear to be the same badge. I thought I could flesh out that photo a bit with these images, but I think I was wrong. Mine is, I believe, an Excellent Worker - Narkomat of Oil, not a Socialist Competition badge. My mistake and I apologize. Chuck

... And here it is in its original box.

I love this photo. They are both as proud as they can be. Here are some images of that badge. Chuck

* * * * * In 31 months of active searching in Georgia, with feelers out elsehere, I have never seen or been offered one for sale. Speaking of which, I'm outa here tomorrow for three weeks in Georgia. Chuck

That is one heck of an interesting badge and one that I have not seen before, either. I have a number of RR badges and items and I would have that one had I ever seen it. The enamel isn't quite unique. I'm referring to the style and colors. One of my favorite badges is the early "Friends of Radio" badge. Both badges have similar shades of blue, light green and white, on an earth with longitudes and latitudes background. I am no badge scholar, for sure, but the train does look a little cartoonish. "Tommie the Train Engine"? Good one. I think it's a nice addition to your collection if you collect RR. Chuck

* * * * * Thanks, Doc, but Alan's example is probably the nicest I have ever seen. What a beauty!

Here are a couple more. The one on the left has a replacement link, so no indication whether the suspension is original, and someone has tried to clean it along the way. The one on the right is pretty solid, missing the enamel but otherwise it seems pretty good. The ribbons are problematic, of course.

And here's the recipient page.

OK, here's one from 1949.

* * * * * No, it isn't pink, but it is an unusual color, at least to my eyes. If you examine the fabric with a 10x glass you can clearly see several colors of thread that sort of blend into a kind of faded light olive color. I don't know if this is "gabardine wool" or not, as I can't really picture what that is. The threads are not uniformly one color, dark sage or olive green or otherwise. I can't find any marks inside. That's about the best I can do for a description.

Here's a further enhanced scan of the order book entries. The lack of the badge was a disappointment, of course. Just one of those things.

This is his December 1945 diploma from, as best I can translate it, the Military Commanders Faculty of the Order of Lenin Academy in the name of I. V. Stalin, with the specialty of Tank Commanding Officer. The certificate, which is undated, unsigned and otherwise unattributable, was folded inside the diploma. Machavariani is a fairly common Georgian name. I translate the certificate as follows: Colonel Machavariani Semen Mikhailovich Participant in the battle against the Imperial Japanese Military at Khalkhin-Gol from 11 May to 23 August 1939 as commanding officer of the 207th Separate Tank Battalion of the 17th Army. Participant in the Great Patriotic War on the First Baltic Front during the period 6 April to 22 October 1944 as commanding officer of the 43rd Tank Regiment, 3rd Guards Mechanized Corps. As always, I welcome better translations than my own. Chuck

A couple more documents.

Documents for his veteran's badges.

Does anyone know if there is a generally accepted transliteration for Халхын Гол ? I've seen it a variety of ways. What is preferred on this forum? Does anyone care? At any rate, here is a group from one such veteran, including some documents. No badge, sad to say, or any idea where it went. Pretty interesting anyway, at least it is to me. Note the order numbers in the book.

I was in the Georgian chancellory back in 2003 and I happened to be chatting up the chief administrator of the chancellory. I mentioned that I collect orders and medals and he said "Really? Wait just a minute." He walked over to his safe, opened it and pulled out a small box of unissued Veteran of Labor medals and gave them to me, saying "We never did know what to do with these." I've still got 'em, still in the small box. No, it's not like getting a box of Labor Glory-1s or anything like that, but it happened to me. The experience was better than owning the medals. Chuck