Bob

Here in custom fitted box

Dimensions

- ribbon: width of 20.00mm and height (excl ring connector) of appr 14.40mm

- gold star itself has thickness of appr 3.35mm at center and 2.20 at star tip

- gold star has max widt of 17.4 (star tip to star tip)

- total = 17.8gr, star only 13.25gr

Dimensions thus not being fully in alignment with what is currently in Eric's book.

Unfortunately unnumbered/unmarked... although I'll request from source the "story" behind the star and - if possible - will share here.

This is probably the first time that a scan of a real star (i.e. not from book) is made available on internet!

Custom fitted box

Open blue box

Open red box

Blue box

Red box

Visiting Volgograd/Stalingrad and the Stalingrad Panorama / Museum surprised me... a group of awards to - presumably - a VIP Soviet... WITH a 1st class Skanderbeg. Pics soon to follow.

Am visiting Volgograd right now and - unfortunately - not much to find so far in terms of medals... although oddly enough I've come by a boatload of overpriced run of the mill Mongolian awards... incl quite some polar stars and even a Deputat badge

During Chernobyl's disaster I lived in Kiev which is only 100 miles away from the nuclear power plant. I remember lots of interesting things happened that spring. For example all buses disappeared from Kiev for three days. As I found out later, they were used to evacuate the entire population of Chernobyl, Pripyat and other smaller towns around the power station. Later those buses returned to regular city lines after short deactivation procedures (just washed them with water).

I visited Chernobyl and Pripyat while touring through Ukraine by car. Smuggled into the exclusion zone by a local maffia guy who was running the steel reclaim operation from various old reactors there, runnning the gasoline distribution and all transportation in the Chernobyl area.

Had a blast - up to 100 meters of the reactor. Fun in the Chernobyl bar sipping away cognac with the locals.

You can also visit it officially as a tourist but requires paying $$$

I think I'll stick to the Mongolian section we have quite here. It seems to be the principle place for all lovers of Mongolian awards so don't quite see a need for spreading the knowledge over more places.

the nations defended themselvs against Germany ...

...and against Russia

Bought that Stalinist Architecture book... VERY good!

suggest you all also look on www.abe.com

a very good site to look for long lost books

New auction up on Zeige - most notable Albanian item being - presumably, the pic is an error - a gold order of the flag. Noted in the description that only 76 of such version were awarded. Would be interesting to know the source of that information.

Document for SB #114.

Awarded to a Russian non-military person on Dec 29, 1955.

Would you be willing to share the name of the person? Any more details know about the background of this awarding?

Is this the highest award for Yugoslavia?

Reason I'm asking is that there's one (documented) for auction on Hermann Historica. A very nice one.

Bob

bump

Shyqyri Ishmi

Fran Ivanaj

Shenjaze Juka

Mustafa Ka?a?i

Xhemal Kada

Dino Kalenja

Hysni Kapo

Kajo Karafili

Ali Kelmendi

Myslym K?ta

Hasan G?rxhaliu

Persefoni Kok?dhima

Tom Kola

Teki Kolaneci

Emine Metaj

Rahman Parllaku

(hequr titulli)

Hekuran Pobrati

Vehbi Hoxha

Vangjel Argjiri

Branko Kadia

Hito ?ako

(hequr titulli)

Petrit Dume

(hequr titulli)

Abdyl Elmazi

Jordan Misja

Jorgo Sulioti

Hajredin Bylyshi

Hiqmet Buzi

Muhamet Prodani

Ndreko Rino

Rexhep Kolli

Sadik Bekteshi

(hequr titulli)

Veli Dedi

Xhoxhi Martini

Zija Kambo

Tuk Jakova

Mehmet Shehu

Emin Duraku

Spiro Kote

Asim Aliko

as you can see some of the names under have in brakets the words (hequr titulli) meaning title later removed. these were people who once were entitled hero of people but later suposedly betrayed socialism and executed by communist party, they actually were rrivals of Enver hoxha.

Hello Mr Albania

Could you shed some more light on this thread? Are the names / citations public knowledge and centrally available somewhere for isntance?

Here you go - just in. Wanted a documented one of these for a long time.

Can these be researched?

As background music in this thread I hear the instrumentals from the Jaws movie... because there's something coming closer and closer but we can't see it just yet... oh the suspense!

Of course there isn't a single way.

But there are mainstream areas and there are some less popular fields (Mongolia is one of them). It's getting better since some literature has been published on the subject, but still is very much niche market.

I was just thinking about this from investor's point of view: if you buy something for $12,000, you would hope it would appreciate and you make nice return on your investment. But what's ones exit strategy? If there isn't large enough market - whom are you going to sell to?

Again, what do I know? There may be plenty of folks to whom paying $12K and more for an order is in the same magnitude as for me paying for a common Red Banner is.

If you were an investor, wouldn't you choose a more mainstream area precisely for that reason... better liquidity?

Although I am confident Mongolian awards - the rare ones that is - will appreciate and appreciate over time... for investment purposes, the 12K ones may in fact be much worse than let's say a Soviet order of friendship.

Just flipping further through the auction catalogue (great reference work - highest quality catalogue I've ever seen). Amazing group: a German EK group... aviator who also flew in '20's in Russia and was awarded one of only 90 Red Banner Orders of Chorezm!

I guess investors are the only ones capable of shelling out $12,000 or more for a single badge.

William

Why?

Have a look at the item nr 197 in the new Andreas Thies auction.... never seen this medal before. Very nice... as well as some other items:) Biggest bunch of Buchara items I've seen in 1 group.

RECENTLY SOLD

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- 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

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- USD 1.680, nr 644, Nota Bene - NOVEMBER 2006

CURRENTLY FOR SALE

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- USD 2.900, nr 640, www.collectrussia.com

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- EURO 1.650 (roughly 2.200 USD), nr 1514, www.huesken.com

- USD 2.150, nr 1.837, www.collectrussia.com