Bob

That would be great "zook" - I'm sure many people here on the forum incl. myself would love to get a view on the groups you mentioned.

The Borisov Group is mine... on sale via consignment. I purchased this group during the "happy time" ... back in the late 90s. The group photo with Batov was part of the original offering, but the very nice original (profile) photo actually came back with the research! It is one of my nicest groups... but I am narrowing down my collection, and decided to part with it. Dan

"one of my nicest" - ehmmm would it be possible to share some pictures / background of "some" of your other ones?

Good luck with your Mongolian quest but I think that the C05 will be very very hard to find now.....

I was lucky I got into this early but I haven't seen one in over a year, maybe longer.....

I think there are only about 400 of these out there, but you never know you might get lucky...

Cheers

JC

Unfortunately have to second JC on this. I have one (unnumbered / undocumented) and haven't seen one for sale since I got it (over a year ago?) except for this past week when I spotted a documented (incl. photograph / choibalsan autograph) one for sale. Asking price >2.500 USD That's a lot for a small (but important) badge!

Now the asking price MAY have been a bit excessive... but who's to say when there's no other on offer?

My advice: grab one next time you spot one.

These are beautiful - just the first thought on my mind everytime I see one.

The reverse indicates this one had a rough life though. On the other hand, great to see a document for such a late one - puts a line in the sand with regard to officially awarded ones.

750 USD!!!

170212030715

Looking through one of Igor's old paper lists (August 1998, not THAT long ago!):

screwback

- USD 1,200, number not given

pinback

- USD 985, nr 1600

I didn't join the Mongolia collecting community until 2005 or so if I recall correctly and, to be honest, would think that for 1998 those prices are actually expensive!

It's a real pity that Alexei stepped out of the game although I guess also with him supply-demand would take effect and prices go to unreachable levels. Nevertheless, fair dealers are now difficult to find and to be honest it was also just outright fun to click on NB's site at least once a day to see if some new treasure had arrived

Fortunately for me Soviet has not been much more than a diversion (difficult to remain disciplined) from my main interests of Mongolian / Albanian but when the pickings get slim and you have some time and the internet on your hand you start to search and find new areas which start to interest you. Perhaps I'll leave Soviet for what it is and look more towards Yemen, Uganda or North Korea (the more obscure the better )

And I suspect this riddle has been "solved" (at least half)

I guess what I hold is at the bottom end of his biography

Nice to get a more complete view though on who he was.

Thanks,

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

Personally, I'm not sure I like that award at all. The number is way too low and way too odd.

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...