Bob

From the Andreas Thies auction coming up in July: ALBANIEN EHRENKETTE VON ALBANIEN 134 Ordensdekoration. Die Ordensdekoration in Form des albanischen Doppeladlers. Weißgold. Die Augen mit eingesetzten Rubinen. Auf dem aus Rotgold gefertigten Brustschild des Adlers ein Brillant. Auf der Rückseite gravierte Bezeichnung: „Skanderbegu“. Auf den rückseitigen Schwanzfedern Goldstempel „18K“. Extrem seltenes Exemplar einheimischer Fertigung. Laut Angaben des Einlieferers stammt dieses Stück aus den ersten Jahren der Volksrepublik Albanien und wurde in Anlehnung an die von König Zogu verliehene Ehrenkette von Albanien (1925 – 1931) die jedoch auch bereits zur Zeit der Republik ab 1922 existierte, für den jugoslawischen Staatschef Tito angefertigt. Dafür spricht die wertvolle Ausführung in Weißgold und der entsprechende Materialwert. Gewicht: 73,8 g Order Decoration. This decoration is in the form of an Albanian double headed eagle in white gold with rubies inset as eyes. The red gold crafted eagle breast plate features a single brilliant. The reverse is engraved with “Skanderbegu” and the tail feathers feature the gold hallmark “18K”. Extremely rare badge of local production. According to the consignor, this piece dates from the first years of the people’s Republic of Albania and was created for Marshal Tito based on the Chain of Honor of Albania (1925-1931). It was instituted by King Zogu but already existed at the time of the Republic in 1922. The high value of the white gold and the superior quality of this example speaks to it as a high-level award. Weight: 73.8 g Zustand/Condition 1 – 2. 8000 Tried to upload pics but not working right now for some reason.

I am browsing through the Thies catalogue - such a shame these awards are not coming with documents. Over time the provenance of these items will be lost.

If that is the movie I think it is then I have seen it and it is a complete piece of #%#$ This on the other hand is an excellent film with the Soviet/Afghanistan conflict as backround : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beast_(1988_film)

Came across this interesting Wikipedia entry by coincidence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_for_Hill_3234 39 Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan participated in this battle: - 2 awarded Hero of Soviet Union - the other 37 awarded both Order of Red Banner and Order of Red Star 6 out of the 39 were KIA and 28 were wounded in action Most decorated unit in a single battle (in Afghanistan)?

Yes, and without accurate data we'd need to guesstimate The nr of regular Hero's is around 100 My guess is the nr of Hero of Socialist Labour would be 400-600

I guess a reasonable guesstimate of nr of awarding could be made by taking a multiple of the nr of 'regular' Hero of Albania titles which were awarded (the nr is mentioned elsewhere in a thread - i vaguely recall it was around 100).

Good question!

That one up north has not sold for years. Way overpriced indeed.

nice ‘little’ civilian group arrived this week incl a load of jubilee medal documents only rarely see the october revolution in larger documented groups

Looks fine to me not easy to find these anymore

Great, thanks Jan - much appreciated! And nice to know there's still people active here!

Here an explanation from "the expert" on this "The badge of People’s Honored did not come to life until 1980s. Prior to that a person who was bestowed the title of Peoples Honored was awarded the Badge of the Honored. Therefore, the person who was awarded the title of Honored was given the corresponding medal. If the same person was bestowed a title of Peoples Honored, he/she used to get the same medal received previously. Please see the attached photo. Therefore, the numbering for the title holders of Honored and Peoples honored got mixed up which led to this confusing serial numbering." So it really does sound like the Battushig A7 and A8 got mixed up (with initially A7's being awarded to people given the title for A8 well before an actual A8 was created) and this is driving a serial number 'mess'. The A8 is very prestigious though with (based on the Blue Bible list of less than 100 awardees) only a very limited number of people having been awarded this title annually. On the one hand a pity that we don't have a better way to get the background stories (only the lucky cases which have a document connected to the badge can be found back in the Blue Bible) as these are super rare. On the other hand, it's puzzling to me that Mongolia already had so many different awards (like State Prize for example) and just kept adding and adding. Makes me wonder about the criteria for being awarded X vs. Y.

Nothing unfortunately. I would have been very curious to see how many members there'd be to get a sense for how much of a niche collecting area Mongolian orders/medals actually is

Colonel Dandar was fortunate to have a grand daughter who wrote two books on him (in 2009 and 2019) incl. a lot of background information and pics. Unfortunately my Mongolian is 'rusty' but still nice to have these books as companion to the Gold Star and especially the pics.

Finally got what appears to be a 'silver' badge for the Title of People's Merit. Only 2nd o 3rd time I've seen one of those in the market and very rare (based on the Blue Bible, less than 100 awarded). Unfortunately undocumented. The serial number of 7757 is 'odd' to say the least but an explanation will follow.

Any real gold ones? Believe I've only seen (at an auction) a gold Ikom one once. They are a bit of an enigma.

Always nice, these silver Skanderbegs!

Great post - and banging my head that I only just read it. Wish you would have shared some more details! By the way, in light of your adventures I think you might like this book (a lot): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuva_or_Bust!

Hi Sorin - do you know if it is possible to have an early numbered Romanian Hero of Labor gold star researched in the archives?

Did not post this yet, but I was lucky to get an additional item confirmed to be belonging to Lodon come my way: his Medal 40 Years of the MPR... with a very low serial number of 00083 Doing my best to breath some life into this forum. I know there's still quite some collectors out there with rare items or just interesting translation of documents / research to post - would love to see some more of you posting! I have something special to post once I finally get my hands on it. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic it'll be impossible for me to pick it up any time soon. The anticipation of finally having it in my hands is already a big part of the fun though. Another gap in my collection 'filled' which I never thought I'd be able to do anymore.

Very useful thread. Question: how would you qualify the documented one on www.dmitrymarkov.com ?

Nice posts, thanks. Too bad the numbered Skanderbeg was not documented - would have been interesting to see that (for the first time).

I surprisingly managed to close some 'high end' gaps this past year. Will always be interested in (documented) screwback SB's as well as documented Soviet/Mongolian cross-over groups (dare I dream of an 'impossible' Albanian/Mongolian cross-over group?) but my real top 3 of 'wants' on my wish list are as follows: 1) Badge of the Hero of MPR (not the hero gold start but the one which looks like the Order of SB) 2) Order of the Red Banner of Labor Valor (1920's style, with the polar star white bands criss crossing the order) 3) Order of the Red Banner of Military / Combat Valor (i.e. old style with crossed sword/rifle at the bottom) awarding nr 2 or nr 3 I am skipping above the enamel ribbon I am still searching for for the Order of SB What are yours?

Good question, impossible to answer unfortunately. I could just speculate.

When the forum 'upgrade' happened a lot of pics were lost unfortunately :(