Bob

Check it out

I imagine that the fact that a labour award (in this case: HSL) really only offers 2-3 lines of explanation has something to do with it vs. military awards with more lenghty descriptions of what, where, when. Then again, into what detail is it relevant to go for a pig farmer? If you've taken care of 1 pig, you've taken care of a million pigs in a sense. The truly exceptional "workers" would have gotten a state prize instead of a HSL?

Reverse

We need to have another look at these A8's: Dark enamel in center: - 0244 hand-engraved top one with square pinback - 706 rotating tool engraved bottom one with round pin back Light enamel in center - no number for top one (round pin-back) - 508 rotating tool engraved bottom one (round pin-back) No enamel in center - hand-engraved number 0114 (some sort of pin-back) Soon I will be receiving number 0022 which (from pictures seen sofar) is handengraved, with round pinback and as of yet undetermined color enamel. Perhaps somebody is $%^&* with our mind on this medal just like on the Polar Star! Why does it have to be so complicated!

188 for the one with the blob the other doesn't have a number also interesting to start looking at... the blob one (A40.2) has a U-ring as part of the medal whereas the other one (A40.4) has an O-ring also as part of the medal I have no clue what the blob is!

Voila

Reverse

Some additional ones most of which you'll recognize. 2 NIB's - 50 and 60 year of state prosecution - very light badges. Also have the 60 years (D09)with document but I believe it's already posted in this thread or elsewhere.

The one with red booklet is a D05 and does not have a number (as per design). The D03a (with old booklet) is number 163. I also have another one of these (number 819) without booklet.

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Update: 00031 - enamel 01187 - enamel (with unnumbered booklet) 2214 - painted (also note: enamel of suspension is darker blue on this) Soon arriving: - 3074... but with enamel (with numbered booklet) - this must be an odd one out... Please all: post yours along with number so we can see if they switched back to enamel somewhere.

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and the inside

and the inside

Two in my collection

Nice overview - still missing the "ugly" latest version.

Duplication here but hopefully this provides a better scan

And last one - with the details

Here another pic

Nice set here - two labor's awarded to the same person - useful also for getting some dates for our researchers:) Notice the Uighur one - person applied some solder to fix a broken suspension - gives it more character

Occasionally I've seen some HSL stories which are easy to understand why it's valued so exceptionally in USSR: researching nuclear weapons for instance. But what I then don't get is all the HSLs (e.g. on one of the dealer websites with 2 Order of Lenins attached to it) for "mere" farming. Must be a one hellofa HUGE farm...

Sure - any ones in particular?

The high-end boxed / documented stuff is cool of course but it's the little unexpected gems which give a lot of satisfaction. I still haven't figured out why there's (fairly unique) a mint mark on the ring of one of my Mongolian mining medals (well, offically: badge). On a different note... if anybody can produce a list of Mongolians who have received a high end Soviet award then that would be very much appreciated.

Thanks guys. Will post details once the deal is completed... otherwise I might get all excited full of anticipation only to be let down if the deal falls through Next to the HSU and Lenin there is also an order patriotic war 2nd class awarded on 24th march 1945 in his booklet. The booklet is an official duplikat from '72. Anyway, I'm rambling on. Nothing to be found on www.warheroes.ru about this guy so it will be interesting what research will dig up.

Here's the overview. Hidden in between the 11 Polar Stars are 4 different Uighur scrip variations.