Bob

This is supposedly the Republic Medal of Merit, 1st class Not in my possession but hope to get it in the near future What a beauty!

And now for something truly exceptional which gave me a Eureka feeling which I suspect we all have in those rare moments we finds something very extremely elusive.

http://www.russian-medals.net/marshals.htm Guess a lot more came on the market - good to see he is mentioned in a book somewhere. Win some, lose some Christophe - but who knows what kind of deal opportunities may ever appear.

Recently acquired on another forum: Bazhanov Uryi Pavlovich (1905 - 1975), Marshal of Artillery (1965), PhD (1968), member of Communist Party since 1929. Entered the Red Army in 1920, graduated from Kiev Artillery school in 1926, graduated from Artillery Academy in 1936, and finally graduated from Academy of General Stuff in 1953. Between 1938-1942 - Head of 1st Moskow Artillery School, 1945 - Artillery Commander of 39th Army, then by the end of WWII - Head of Artillery in Far East (Japan). After war, occupied different top military positions until 1975 1. The letter from HR of PVO Forces of USSR informing that Marshal Bazhanov has been awarded the "Medal 40 Years of Soviet Military Forces" 2. The "Medal 40 Years of Soviet Military Forces". 3. The Member ID issued by Kharkov District of Communist Party of Ukraine. Dated 1958. I'm curious about Bazhanov but can't find much via Google. Are there any books where he is covered?

Anybody already received their copy?

So I sent an email from a different email address... this time with read receipt confirmation turned on. My email was read... and I received a reply essentially that things would be taken care of in a few days time. Roughly two weeks later still no news so again I sent an email with read receipt. I see my email has been read yet no response. In the meantime new items have been put on his website so clearly Markov has time to take care of business. This is over for me now. Never again with this dealer.

Here an interesting one awarded to not a person but an organization: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRESIDIUM OF PARLIAMENT OF SOCIALIST PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA AWARDS THE DEMOCRATIC FRONT ORGANISATION OF VILLAGE SHELBATER IN ELBASAN THE MEDAL FOR DISTINGUISHED STATE AND CIVIC SERVICES FOR EXEMPLARY MOBILISATION IN FULFILLING ALL TASKS , FOR EDUCATION OF THE MASSES, FOR STRENGTHENING UNITY, AND FOR VERY GOOD RESULTS IN ECONOMIC AND DEFENSE AREA ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Note the interesting plastic box which nicely fits a "folded" medal.

And I am INCLINED (but who knows for sure!) to believe that the unnumbered (or seller numbered) "type 2's" are in fact examples of the purported type 3. Low price could be explained also by the fact that this type 3 is supposedly not gold but rather bronze + gilt and thus considerably cheaper. Above is merely a hypothesis of course.

And I am INCLINED (but who knows for sure!) to believe that the unnumbered (or seller numbered) "type 2's" are in fact examples of the purported type 3. Low price could be explained also by the fact that this type 3 is supposedly not gold but rather bronze + gilt and thus considerably cheaper. Above is merely a hypothesis of course.

Having revisited the thread in detail, we have an interesting situation on type 2 labor hero awards. Several type 2's... some numbered, some not. The first one, posted by me, is numbered 420 and came from an extremely reliable source. The last one, also posted by me, is very similar although obviously with a different 3 digit number but the first digit (4) is nearly identical to the one on 420. Screws are identicle on both. On the second one, there's a slight dimple on reverse similar to what can be seen on the example in Bat's book. Then there's other type 2's... unnumbered (or "abusively" numbered) - with differences in detail and different screw but apparently also from very reliable source. So what does this mean?

For anybody interested: have some extra copies of the book mentioned at beginning of thread

Bear in mind, there's 2 digits to the right of it which I've blocked.

Unrelated but interesting http://stmaximoshut.powerblogs.com/archive...006_09_09.shtml "Namkhainyambuu "achieved remarkable reknown for his expertise in herding" under the Communists. (Namkhainyambuu's book, Bounty from the Sheep, sounds worth reading.) Could it just be possible that someone who "told [the author] that he worked very hard to be awarded the titles of 'Champion' or 'Hero of Labor' and to receive the 'Star of Sukhbaatar' and the 'Golden Soyombo' medals," whose wife received the "Best Herder" gold medal and "Champion Youth" silver medal under the communists and who "himself became possibly the most reknown herdsman, partly for fulfilling his pledges to raise 10,000 white sheep in twenty years and for his advice to herders in newspapers, and partly because of his appearances in films and at important public events." "

may need to do a return to sender Edit: to clarify, one on the right has been in my possession for 2 years or so and came from an extremely reliable source (although clearly being different than the type 2 Ed has posted above), one on left came into my hands yesterday. Puzzling...

could be right

Or could this be the socalled type 3, with a number added? Getting confused...

4 looks good vs. 420 earlier in thread

it appears different screw plates in use for type 2... unfortunately battery of scale ran out to do some comparison measurements

Yes, definately one of a kind.

2 year GMIC-Mongolia anniversary went by without a We've certainly come a long way in a short period of time

And now for something insanely ugly. It looks in some areas different than the type 3 Ed posted which may make this either a fake or a variation of type 3. There is something which is "supposed to" resemble a number on the reverse. What kind of person would produce something like this and then go home at the end of the day feeling proud of his work

Reverse - IKOM