Bob

Right now only consisting of 1 piece... But since I enjoy mountaineereing in my free time, I've decided to try to expand on this area of collecting going forward. Attached 2 scans of a Russian alpinism badge for climbers who've reached 5.000m. It would appear that Elbrus (highest mountain in Europe) is depicted on it. Of special interest for me since a year or two ago I summited Elbrus myself. Note that the Germans in WW2 even made it to the summit of Elbrus (look on the map: a LONG drive) and hoisted the Swastika flag on it.

That for sure! I still remember the day when I got my first SB in the mail - a very, very happy boy! The powerful image, high quality and sheer weight of the order blew me away. I'm glad I was able to give it some brothers/sisters but I doubt they'll be getting anymore SB's to keep each other warm

Uhoh... by by (or rather: buy buy!) "cheap" SB's. I think it's now turned into a sellers market... RECENTLY SOLD pinback - USD 1.870, nr 1.918, Nota Bene - JANUARY 2007 - USD 1.880, nr 1.785, Nota Bene - JANUARY 2007 (boxed) - USD 1.950, nr 860, www.russianglory.com - MARCH 2007 - EURO 1.600 (roughly 2.100 USD), nr 1183, www.huesken.com - MARCH 2007 - EURO 1.650 (roughly 2.200 USD), nr 1514, www.huesken.com - JUNE 2007 - EURO 1.300 (roughly 1.700 USD), nr 1246, private seller - SEPTEMBER 2007 - EURO 1.600 (roughly 2.200 USD - before fees!), nr 1514, Andreas Thies October auction - OCTOBER 2007 - USD 1.850, nr 1947, Nota Bene - NOVEMBER 2007 - USD 2.150, nr 1.837, www.collectrussia.com - NOVEMBER 2007 screwback - USD 1.680, nr 644, Nota Bene - NOVEMBER 2006 - EUR 1.630 (roughly 2.150 USD), nr 585, Albert GMIC - MAY 2007 - USD 2.650, nr 644 (again!), Nota Bene - OCTOBER 2007 (boxed) - USD 2.900, nr 640, www.collectrussia.com - NOVEMBER 2007 CURRENTLY FOR SALE screwback - USD 3.300, nr 227, Coinsell (on eBay)

That represents a little over 20% appreciation year over year... buy now or by 2010 a pinback will cost you 4K USD... and I'd suspect the rate of increase on these will only be increasing so 4K is probably "conservative". Of course, had you bought Microsoft shares back in the day and sold them now, you could have bought even MORE SB's at this moment AND have money left on the side for some other nice awards - of course, then you'd not have the fun of fondeling your SBs on rainy sunday afternoons so many years

Great group! Hope you get the red stars researched. I have 1 red star in that small "awarded to Mongolians" range undergoing research but no luck sofar

1.000 USD is a lot to pay for a screw in my mind... Of course, if/when research becomes possible and depending on what this will actually provide in terms of information... it may provde to be worth that difference.

Hi Ed - any chance of perhaps posting a scan of Hero of Labor 373 and 420 bio's from the book? Those are the 2 Soyombos in my possession (no documentation unfortunately) and would be interesting to see what "hypothetically" could be the story behind these 2. Thanks

While we'll never know for sure, it appears a new screwback has been sold. RECENTLY SOLD pinback - USD 1.870, nr 1.918, Nota Bene - JANUARY 2007 - USD 1.880, nr 1.785, Nota Bene - JANUARY 2007 (boxed) - USD 1.950, nr 860, www.russianglory.com - MARCH 2007 - EURO 1.600 (roughly 2.100 USD), nr 1183, www.huesken.com - MARCH 2007 - EURO 1.650 (roughly 2.200 USD), nr 1514, www.huesken.com - JUNE 2007 - EURO 1.300 (roughly 1.700 USD), nr 1246, private seller - SEPTEMBER 2007 - EURO 1.600 (roughly 2.200 USD - before fees!), nr 1514, Andreas Thies October auction - OCTOBER 2007 - USD 1.850, nr 1947, Nota Bene - NOVEMBER 2007 screwback - USD 1.680, nr 644, Nota Bene - NOVEMBER 2006 - EUR 1.630 (roughly 2.150 USD), nr 585, Albert GMIC - MAY 2007 - USD 2.650, nr 644 (again!), Nota Bene - OCTOBER 2007 (boxed) - USD 2.900, nr 640, www.collectrussia.com - NOVEMBER 2007 CURRENTLY FOR SALE pinback - USD 2.150, nr 1.837, www.collectrussia.com screwback - USD 3.300, nr 227, Coinsell (on eBay)

Anything in the book's Labor Hero section with a nr 44? Oops - I was going to point to the New Jersey website and say that it would be interesting as we'd be able to put perhaps some kind of story behind that Soyombo... but it's gone! Somebody probably thought: better get it now before it's a 10K item!

Thanks - once I get my copy I'll be happy to have a look at the kind of data that appears to be present. If any other people are then interested in an "adopt a section for translation" initiative, I'd be happy to coordinate and consolidate and also obviously financially cover for a reasonable share of the translation. This obviously doesn't have to be a one go thing and can be spread over time. Taking Labor Hero (probably the one with most interest: numbered awards with reasonable amount of them in collectors hands incl. some documented and actual background info on recipients in the book): - 117 pages in total - 10 people 12 pages per person - 10 USD per page = 120 USD per person I'd be more than happy to fork up 120 USD and then get in return eventually translated bios of the FULL list of Labor Heros. Anyone willing to join, PM me.

Sorry for shooting more questions (we're all just very curious ) - does Mongolbank also maintain archives on who was awarded what, when, etc. or is that maintained elsewhere?

The downside, we all may have more unawarded orders than we realized (even on the old ones from 20's / 30's). UB - do you know if the vaults still contain any more stock? E.g. supposed hero star?

Translated to USD 1. State Prize (45-62) 55 80,000 68 2. Sukhbaatar order 1 700,000 598 3. Combat Red banner (1926-31) 6 1,000,000 855 4. Combat Red banner 1939 7 1,000,000 855 5. Combat Red banner (2nd award) 1939 3 700,000 598 6. CRB 1945-1970 - 1st award 240 60,000 51 2nd award 319 250,000 214 3rd award 181 400,000 342 4th award 90 600,000 513 7. Labor Red banner 1926 1 1,200,000 1,026 1931-40 6 700,000 598 1940-45 4 1,200,000 1,026 8. Altan Gadas 1926 1 1,200,000 1,026 9. Member of Baga Hural 87 40,000 34 Member of Ikh Hural 1960-1990 8 25,000 21 1990-1992 191 25,000 21

Keep 'm coming - love it when they're boxed and even more so when they have "character" due to repairs or other strange things

At least I got the number translated already: 4727 I was surprised that such a high number would come up. Guess these aren't as rare after all.

I agree with the above responses and would suggest for instance to consider finetuning your collecting area of interest to either a more uncommen area (e.g. Albanian for example) where you don't have "thousands" of others chasing the same items OR to an area within your existing collecting interest which is more sharply defined (e.g. instead of collecting Soviet awards, collect documented Soviet awards related to battle for Berlin) so you can focus your spend. The point about research that Ed makes is also an important one - instead of expanding collection and trying to chase a once in a lifetime great deal, why not focus on getting research for the awards that you do have? E.g. the hero star you own... hundres may own one but I can assure you there's thousands (incl. myself) that would LOVE to own one. Finally, there'll always be somebody with more money or who started collecting sooner (when the prices were lower). Better to not get frustrated about that or you'll never be happy. Besides, you've got a Hero Star!

Hi Christer, have you posted your (especially documented if any) stuff already? The more the merrier and more patterns to identify

I guess it is. To some extent I'm happy about it though - the sense of discovery (and I'm not referring to finding a new sub-type of a sub-variation of essentially the same award) is still very much alive and I think it's nice to be part of a relatively small community of true enthusiasts. I'm just amazed that there aren't more people active in this forum - judging from items sold by key dealers there must be other MAJOR collectors out there with very, very interesting things to share. We could all learn so much more with a few more individuals participating.

Once I get my copy of the book and review it, I'd be happy to pitch in for translation of certain sections. Probably not translation of all hero biographies at once but one by one translating certain COMPLETE sections (e.g. Title of merit presumably a short section) should help to get for certain awards an as comprehensive as possible English set of information. Some questions of course remain: who organized this book? how did the person get the information? is this all the information there is on these awards or is more "hidden" in the "vaults"? So many questions, so few answers

180179879046 Another interesting one (seller has a few more) - "creative advertising" or the real deal?

Just noticed we were still missing a scan of this one. Note: no more star on top of the soyombo.

Absolutely these are great. The one above has been on my "I want one" list for a long time! Looking at pics is nice but I in the end do like to hold them in my own hand Next on my list to get is in fact a good dictionary to start translating some of these documents.

Hope this scan comes out ok

Will make a detailed scan - please give some direction: the name is the blue characters on the left page? slow connection by the way so all is taking a bit longer than usual...