Dolf

Sorry, couldn't find it before. Thanks, Dolf

Jim, The fake order/medal database you mention, is it posted on the Forum? I tried to find it here but no results! Or are you still working on it for now? Great idea anyway. Dolf

Salut Christophe, Wouldn't expect nothing less than perfect for a guy who studied French for some 10 years, lived in France for some 5 years, has a translation certificate (well, Portuguese-French and French-Portuguese, so no English involved but still ) and teached French for some 24 years It's my English who is still a bit rusty and lacking of vocabulary, even thought I read most of the time books in english and try to practice on this and other Forums Best wishes, Dolf

Rusty, I know... I just don't think there was any bad intention in that Post. At least I took it more like a funny comment, nothing more. Cheers, Dolf PS: Quoting Ed in that Post: "...Not to get us into inter-forum rivalry..." Please no "war" between Forums, buddy, after all we are all on the same side and sharing common interests, and the fact one Forum may be better in one field doesn't in any way devalorize any other Forum that might be better in another field. Both complement each other. So please shake hands and let's move forward my friends. Dolf

My dear Rusty, I don't think I mentioned in which Forum I posted that, so I believe Ed couldn't know which Forum I was talking about! It could have been the WAF, or any other Forum! Anyway, you know I'm a member of (at least) both this Forum and the one you're talking about. The S-A Forum is indeed a great reference for Soviet awards, probably the best in the Western World. That is its speciality after all. Now, knowing both Forums, I also know that as far as Mongolian awards are concerned, the GMIC has evolved in such a way that IMHO today it IS the best reference for Mongolian Awards! Just my two tugriks, Dolf

Paul, In short, what Mark says is correct and kind of resumes the essential. Anyway, a more complete translation just for the context, would be: "good evening, a guy I know who collects german headgear sent me pictures of your group of the 15th uhlan... I would be maybe interested by the sword... for how much would you sell it alone... thanks for your reply" Hope it helps, Dolf

Jim, Both the #3 AND the #4 sold for $762.00USD? Well, indeed far below the average price for such pieces! An original ORB #3 alone (without the Doc) is now for sale for... $1,720.00USD! And an original #4 with the Doc was sold not long ago for... $4,000.00USD! And these from one of the cheapest dealers I know! They can sell for quite more from other dealers! So my obvious conclusion is that no collector with let's say an average knowledge about these awards have bidded on those pieces shown above, and my guess is that only the usual "ignorant-let's-buy-verything-cause-it's-cheap-even-thought-I-know-nothing-about-these-but-I-might-be-able-to-resale-them-later-with-lots-of-profit" kind of people pay that (still high price for a fake!) money for stuff that those people who are members of this and other Forums would never bid on before asking to the experts on these Forums, if not 100% sure about their authenticity! After all it would only require checking the PMD's book and the Mondvor site, to come to the conclusion that these are obvious fakes! I guess some people just don't know what to do with their money! Or maybe some may know those are fakes, but still buy them anyway with the intention to resale them later hoping to make some profit! Just my two kopecks, Dolf

Mike, Sorry , anyway, nothing that a couple of exchanged PMs couldn't resolve Wise decision to leave it as it is I guess. Cheers, Dolf

De rien mon pote They are really nice! Dolf

Nice ones, Bryan! Dolf

David, Many thanks for your reply. I asked because as I collect Soviet and Mongolian awards, on both cases (as with other former communist countries) there are quite a few specific either commemorative/anniversary or as in the case of the Soviet those Defense of/Capture of/Liberation of (+ name of the city) Medals, or in both cases Medals or Badges for the Battle X (Soviet Lake Hassan Badge or Mongolian Khalkhin Gol Medal, for example), so I was wondering if the British had something like this for those heroes surviving the Raid on St. Nazaire or both the British and the Americans for those taking part on Operation Market Garden. All these examples I mentioned are official awards. You mention that "...there are some unofficial commemorative medals..." Made and issued by some Veterans organizations? And both British and American, for both the Operations I mention? So I guess that in both cases, officially some were awarded the official Orders and Medals, like the Victoria Cross or the Medal of Honor, for example, right? Thanks again, Dolf

I am perfectly relaxed! No offense taken, I simply didn't appreciate your comment about laughing hysterically after I admited myself above that once I understood what MH was talking about I stepped back on my initial attempt to help! Where or who, before my 1st Post on this thread, mentionning this product for the 1st time, any member "voiced their shock at the mention of such a product" ?! After my 1st Post yes, but not before the 1st one. And I only posted the pic of the Duraglit can later (on my 2nd Post) to show others that might not be familiar with that stuff what I was talking about. I never cleaned one single Soviet piece from my collection, and also love "dirty" old ribbons, btw. From the very few pieces I cleaned (and as I said before I know exactly why I did it) I don't regret it for a second, except for one Mongolian silver piece I posted somewhere else on the Forum, and I mentionned my regrets on that same Post immediately after I cleaned it. But then again life is a non ending learning process Just as a side note: Personnaly I prefer by far the kind of Seinfeld humor. Not that I wouldn't have a good laugh with some MP sketches. Dolf

Thank you very much Bryan. Dolf

Dear Sir, I wonder if you've read all posts (at least mine) correctly. Quoting part of my 1st post on this thread: I'll add that with those very, very rare pieces I cleaned, I only did it once when I got them, because they were simply too dirty (I believe I know the difference between patina and s--t dirt!) and never again felt the need to clean them again! Opposed to you ("...am now a 'dirty' guy..." : your words) I HATE dirt, either in me, or in the house (I've seen rich people houses infested with millions of flees, cms of dust everywhere, dog s--t on the floor, etc, etc, etc... that would never happen in my place, and even so that didn't make me "hysterically laugh"!), or whatever. I admit I'm probably maniac about dirt, but hey, to each one of us his own mania! Nothing wrong with that, except that I don't "hysterically laugh" about other people's manias! I use this Duraglit at home for cleaning some metal or silver pieces from time to time ans tested it a couple of times in a couple of DIRTY pieces among the hundreds of Orders and Medals I have in my collection. Obviously I wouldn't (as I didn't do it before) recommend it to be used systematically and only suggested it to MH because he asked for help and was trying to find the best way to clean those silver things. It was only a suggestion, an attempt to help. Again I quote part of another Post in this same thread once I realized what MH was talking about: What might me ROTFL is that someone may believe that a 30, or 40, or 50, or 60 years old piece still has the battlefield patina!... I'd rather believe that the pieces we get coming from some poor Mongolian farmer or some poor Russian (living in conditions some of us can hardly imagine, abandonned for years in conditions and places we can only imagine...) who had to sell their pieces either to pay his bills or pay his booze or whatever, carry in most cases 90% more dirt than any battlefield patina! Bottom line: When I see pictures of old vets, from whatever Army in the World, proudly wearing their awards in meetings or war commemorations (people that care about their awards and have always treated them carefully) one thing I notice is that in most cases those people do whatever they can to make their awards shine and look as nice as if they were new! So where is the so-called battlefield patina here?! Even here, among some of our Military/former Military members, some have already admited in other threads, that each time they used their awards in some cerimony, they would previously clean their awards to make them shine and look as beautiful as possible. So I believe that probably in most cases what we call patina is in a large scale simply dirt, or "patina" for being abandonned during many years, but most probably not real patina from the battlefield! Even so, in 99,99% of the cases, I still let the pieces in my collection exactly as they came. The few pieces I cleaned, I KNOW exactly why I did it. Hope this helps to clarify what I previously said, Dolf

Dear Kevin, Thanks for your kind words buddy. Not being a professional I admit I'm kind of proud of my camo This was done maybe some 15 years ago +/-, but I kind of remember it wasn't an easy task and demanded quite a few tests in spare pieces of resina (the material these figures are made of) before I managed to get the effect I pretended. Right, you can see that in the real picture of the real Schwarzkopf, as if he used say a M size for a L size head Fortunately the model came with a cap that fits just right on the top of his head Dolf

Bryan, Ok, I guess it explains the good quality of the enamel and the overall piece! As far as I know not even the Soviet Red Army had such good quality hat Badges even for officers, right? Thanks, Dolf PS: thanks for the attached scan. May I ask where it comes from?

Gentlemen, Not at all my field so the question might seem silly Anyway, what I'd like to know is if there was any specific British Medal issued to the survivors of Operation Chariot (the famous Raid on St. Nazaire) and any specific British or American Medal for those participating in the Operation Market Garden? Many thanks in advance, Dolf

Absolutely! No question about that my dear Ed. Why do you think this is my #1 Forum now, since Mongolian awards became my #1 field of collecting and I discovered the GMIC? (Thank you Jan, btw) It just happened that the question was mentioned there before here, so just a question of timing. Also now a Type 2 that I had in my possession for some time, then sold it to a Chinese dealer that finally sold it to another member of both Forums (pics available on this same thread on Post #2) was also questioned so of course I had once again to clarify things: I know for sure that the one I had is a 100% genuine piece! LOL... Dolf

I'm quoting here what I posted in another Forum about this piece, based only on the two poor pics available: "...Now, about this piece: I must admit that personally I'm not yet 100% convinced it is a real fake. This piece (especially the blue color within the central circle) looks like the new brass Order of Sukhbaatar, so still imho it could be a new type of the Medal. Notice that this is only mho based on the couple of pics posted compared to the new brass SB I handled, and I have no further confirmation from the source that such new type of this Medal exists and didn't even asked for confirmation. Notice also that I don't say it's not a fake, that is also perfectly possible, even thought it would be the very first fake Golden Soyombo I'd be seing!..." And: "...Anyway, I guess that what's important now is to find out if this is a fake (that's scary! ) or if it could be one of those new brass types. So it would be very helpful if XXX could post much better and detailed pics, by preference with no background pictures or colors, and if possible closeups of the medallion (front and back) and of the suspension (also front and back)..." In conclusion, we need more information about this piece before we can state for sure that it is a fake. Just my two tugriks, Dolf PS: XXX = the member who initially posted it in the For Sale Room.

Well, if you add the + $30.00 for "ANY shipments outside USA" which is that dealer's policy... I wouldn't call it cheap Dolf

Thank you, Jim. Hard for me to put it in words so well as you do in a language I can manage but definetely don't master. Underlined, exactly my point. And on this one I'll also rest my case on this matter. Dolf

Jim, That's exactly my point. Dolf

Christian, I guess I was probably not clear thus resulting in a misunderstanding. What I said is that the only REAL Hierarchy of Soviet Awards is the official one (either we like it or not, either we agree with it or not) all the rest is subjective because each soldier and/or each collector will have his own preferences. I didn't say that my list should represent the "official" hierarchy, therefore it cannot be wrong. The awards I listed, as stated, are just a list of my own prferences, nothing official and/or definitive. I'd add that it's just a list that came to my mind like that, "tomorrow" I might have a different preference list based on some award I'd start liking more than another. I may be missing or misunderstanding something here, but the "historic reality" is not the official one?! Dolf

Imho this would be an absolutely subjective hierarchy! Only after two attempts by two members (Christian and Gerd) there are already two different results! Not to mention what each Red Army soldier may feel about his own awards! There are no other hierarchy of the Soviet military awards other than the official one, which is in fact the only REAL one! All other attempts would only be based on personal feelings and preferences therefore completely subjective! If only concerning the GPW period (not for long service) my list would probably be different from the two previously posted: -HSU -Order of Lenin -Order of Alexander Nevsky -Order of the Red Banner -Order of the Great Patriotic War 1st class -Order of the Red Star -Order of Glory -Medal for Bravery And this is just my opinion now, rather an example, nothing definitive. Suvorovs, Kutuzovs, etc, not included because my knowledge and interest about those is almost zero. Well, recognized by whom?! I have his last Catalogue and especially based on his Mongolian section I must confess I'm not that convinced. What about P. McDaniel? And Andrey Kuznetsov ("Mondvor" here on the Forum, responsible for the Mondvor site, the best online Soviet Awards site around imho)? Not to mention at least another expert, but being also a dealer, let's just name these two confirmed experts. Just my two cents, Dolf

Ed, Did you notice he raised the price on $11.00, from the previous $48.00 to $59.00? I also (still) have 3 copies. My own (signed and numbered 087) for daily use, and the other two remaining as part of a stock I had for sale (unsigned and unnumbered). I guess I'll keep one of these on the shelf (to have a mint copy as mine starts showing some wear) and the other one is still available for sale. Dolf