Bob

Nice Reverse please? :cheers:

RECENTLY SOLD pinback - USD 795, nr 857, www.collectrussia.com - 1998 - USD 740, nr 1.938, www.collectrussia.com - 1999 - USD 780, nr ?, www.collectrussia.com - 2002 - USD 945, nr 1.233, www.collectrussia.com - 2004 - 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 1.183, www.huesken.com - MARCH 2007 - EURO 1.650 (roughly 2.200 USD), nr 1.514, www.huesken.com - JUNE 2007 - EURO 1.300 (roughly 1.700 USD), nr 1.246, private seller - SEPTEMBER 2007 - EURO 1.600 (roughly 2.200 USD - before fees!), nr 1.514, Andreas Thies October auction - OCTOBER 2007 - USD 1.850, nr 1.947, Nota Bene - NOVEMBER 2007 - USD 2.150, nr 1.837, www.collectrussia.com - NOVEMBER 2007 - USD 1.950, nr 1.437, Nota Bene - JANUARY 2008 - USD 2.000 (excl. 15% auction premium), nr 1,246, Dmitry Markov auction - JANUARY 2008 - USD 1.925, nr 902, eBay - FEBRUARY 2008 - USD 2.200, nr 1.617, somewhere in Russia - MARCH 2008 - USD 2.750, nr 1.635, www.collectrussia.com - MARCH 2008 - USD 2.750, nr 860, Nota Bene - APRIL 2008 - USD 3.200, nr 1.600, www.collectrussia.com - APRIL 2008 - USD 2.250, nr 1.388, Nota Bene - January 2009 screwback - USD 820, nr ?, www.collectrussia.com - 1998 - USD 1.375, nr 89, www.collectrussia.com - 2003 - USD 985, nr 523, www.collectrussia.com - 2004 - USD 1.150, nr 519, www.collectrussia.com - 2004 - 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 - USD 2.500, nr 777, somewhere in Russia - DECEMBER 2007 - USD 3.250 (excl. 15% auction premium), nr 427, Dmitry Markov auction - JANUARY 2008 - USD 3.225, nr 556, private seller - MAY 2008 - USD 3.500, nr 261, Coinsell (on eBay) - SEPTEMBER 2008 CURRENTLY FOR SALE - USD 5.800, nr 448 (screwback), www.collectrussia.com

http://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITEM.HTM?ITEM=20142 always nice to see documented ones!

I didn't bid this time around. Don't recall exactly how long it took me to get my items last time. 12 months or so if I'm not mistaken. What worked for me (but who knows, maybe different people get different service) in the end was exposing him by putting other dealers (co-organizers of the auction) on CC of my emails...

2398 Badge ?To the honorary employee of Government Security of Mongolia?. Award # 5 (!!). Silver. Hallmarked (916). Maker?s mark. Screwback. Quality multi-piece construction with magnificent multi-color enamels. Hallmarked. Engraved serial number and ? on reverse. Original silver nut. Shows minor signs of wear, tiny enamel chips. Good vintage condition otherwise. Rare an of the high interest with so low number ---> 1000 USD excl markup etc 2475 Order of Sukhbaatar. Type 2. Award # 1685. Gold and silver. Pinback type. Multi-piece construction, multi-color enamels. Batt 20-b $ 1,250 ---> 2000 USD excl markup etc Not very outrageous

Received the book. Around 90 pages with lots of pics and, unfortunately in Mongolian, text. Suspect the text is largely describing the orders/medals but who knows there might be new info in there. The pics of the orders/medals aren't that great (not all sharp, no reverse) but some good pics of e.g. the recent medals not easily found (Order of Genghis Khan). The "prize" of the book for me is the pics of the recipients - quite a lot of them, very appealing. Whether that's really worth the high price for this book... probably not unless you are a diehard completist (which I suspect quite a few on this forum will be:)). Certainly not a must have, but a nice to have especially during these quiet collecting times.

I think the first one is from Yemen, not Angola

This whole story about ships going into space is not true. A hoax. I thought this was widely accepted by now. Just kidding Why gold though?

With prices dropping (e.g. the labour cavelier set on collectrussia, recent auctions, etc.) I might be tempted to jump in and get that documented group incl. order of lenin that I'd still like to add to my collection... am wondering, what are the "big" upcoming Soviet auctions? - the new york sale http://www.russian-medals.net/ - wasn't medalhouse also organizing an auction soon? - others? Thanks

Hi there bifter, The difficulty with Albanian awards is that it's not (yet) a very transparent liquid market. It's still unclear what the volume o each award (type) is, there's not that many collectors, material (coming out of Albania) is haphazard... if you look at eBay (for example) one week there's absolutely nothing, the other week there's a sudden surge of good stuff. Then out of the blue an auction in Italy comes along, etc. On the Italy auction, a good example is the gold Ikom Skanderbeg... off the top of my head it went for over 2000 Euros while an Albanian friend indicated a much lower amount (and in USD) would be reasonable. But it's impossible to say because I've only seen one of these come up for sale! For the most rare Albanian items that's certainly the case... it's whatever the biggest "fool" will pay or it. For the more common items, I'd say that eBay prices are generally a reasonable direction. But here again, I've been both burnt (overpaying for what I thought at the time was very rare) but also gotten great deals (because it wasn't clear yet what a rare variation was being ofered for sale). Some of your prices seem a bit high, some a bit low, but that doesn't help you much I'm afraid:( Happy Albania collecting!

Starting to get tempting...

Yep - although that Paris Mint tip is a useful one! :)

Small world - of course, Sint Odilienberg isn't very big and there's quite some Gootzens in that area:)

Sweet, thanks! Indeed, Brussels...

I'm well trained in bureaucracy in Belgium... for 2 months (!!!!) I've been trying to get cable TV installed in my house... you'd think they'd be happy to get a paying customer...

Thanks Sparks - really would be great if you could post detailed pics of your big collection here on GMIC (also of documents) - I'm sure it would help us (and maybe you as well) to learn new things and/or just enoy the great items you have :cheers:

What's your change in focus? I.e. from-to?

I second what others have said. If you don't need (REALLY need) the money, then just put it all in a box in a safe place and have another look at it all in 5 years. Odds are, you'll have great memories and fall in love again with your collection. I recently sold some duplicates in my collection, driven by the fact that I had bought a house, was in middle of completing renovations/buying furniture and then lost my job. Needed some urgent cash and duplicates in my collection provided it - but it pains me to the day that I let these items slip away. So again, if there's no "need", then why even consider it?

That's the encouragement I needed Will be jumping behind my computer to write a letter with a request for a re-issue of the award + copies of any documentation they may have in their archives. Am sure, if it even comes to anything, that it'll take a while... but we're patient fellows here at GMIC:) Keeping my fingers crossed. Any update will be posted here of course. Thanks all for your help. Bob

Could the owner of the warm home in which this set of awards will rest share with the rest of us on GMIC the story behind it? Even though this area of collecting is not my focus area (for example), this thread certainly sparks the curiosity and it sounds like there's a very interesting story here :cheers:

Hmmm - some more googling required then. I think I read somewhere that 15000 or so were awarded which would make it not very common I guess.

Thanks Hendrik - that clarifies and narrows it down for me. :cheers:

Thanks Hendrik - any significance to the difference with the following one: http://www.medal-medaille.com/product_info...roducts_id=3585 And would the type 1 (not on medal-medailles.com) then be the type awarded for WW1? Bob

Great - I find "one" on medal-medaille.com but it turns out there's at least 2 types and 2 versions of the second type... things are never easy! :speechless:

Yeah, I understood Francois lived a life full of all the best France had to offer :cheers: