Mathomhaus

Glad to be of help, Lars!

There's twenty pages of information about the badge (written in both Russian and English) in A. N Ivanov's Jettons of the Russian Empire.There were evidently several versions including an unenameled bronze or bronze gilt version with "for work in the Warehouses of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna in St. Petersburg" in raised Russian lettering on the reverse along with "1904 1905". While the jeton's overall design would seem to have originated in 1906, its "statutes" were still being tweaked as late as 1916. Regards

The pattern is that of a "memorial jetton for work in the Warehouses of Her Imperial Majesty Empress Alexandra Fyodorovna in St. Petersburg." I've seen a couple of these over the years and both had silver hallmarks. The rings, as I recall, threaded through an opening in the crown and were not cast as an integral part of it... Regards

Nick: Most excellent! Many thanks. Regards

Now that you are back on target with Zeal medal holders, please allow me to take you off course for just a minute: in your excellent archive of portraits, do you have a photo that could reasonably pass for Erast Petrovich Fandorin? Spasibo bol'shoi. Regards

As you know, photographing a medal from a distance on a sunny day can result in all sorts of lens flare, so the jury may be out on if it’s the same enameled planchet – but if you allow for image degradation from being enlarged beyond all reasonable limits, I think he’s definitely wearing the same ribbon. When the Academy administrators at the graduation realized that they needed extra space to admit the second of two cadet color guards, I was in a part of the crowd that this officer had to move aside. I was quite honored when, not knowing that I was a tourist, he referred to me as an “esteemed parent”! BTW: I asked the folk at CollectRussia for their permission to use one of their medal photos and they were glad to say yes. Regards

Sorry that this takes you off of your theme, but since one of you mentioned the wearing of Umalatovas: In 2007, I attended by accident the June graduation of the cadets of the Moscow Suvorov Academy. The cememony was held on the plaza in front of the State Historical Museum in the shadow of the equestrian statue of Marshal Zhukov. In and amongst the photos that I took that day is one of a faculty officer who appears to me to be wearing a Umalatova medal (the last one on the top row), specifically the Medal for 80th Anniversary of the Soviet Armed Forces. At the time, I mentioned what I thought it was to some collector friends and they all scoffed at me. Could I be right that a serving officer could get away with wearing an Umalatova medal on his uniform? Regards

http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_09_2013/post-753-0-91789200-1380121380.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_09_2013/post-753-0-28877500-1380121408.jpg Here are photos that I took of the monument over General Lebed's grave in the Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow. It’s certainly one of the larger and more elaborate military memorials... and that's saying a lot considering all the other monuments to famous Russians that are in the Convent's cemetary, You can clearly see the medal in question carefully sculpted with all of his other awards and decorations. Regards

Dear Nick, Spasibo bol'shoi for the translation and the suggestion as to what the fellow in that great portrait might have done to earn his medals! Regards

Last winter I read a review of a new book about two 19th C female entertainers who performed successfully all over Europe, usually with one or both appearing in drag. I wonder if this could be them? If we can take our eyes off all of the medals for a moment and look at the face, it really does seem that "he" isn't what he appears to be... Regards

A friend of mine back in the 60s had a great-grandmother who was a maid in charge of putting out fresh linen every day in the Catherine Palace. I look at this fellow and all of his awards and I wonder what his job was and where. I am next to worthless when it comes to reading handwritten Russian. Does the inscription on the reverse either say or give a hint as to how he served the tsar? Thanks. Regards.

The medal is probably a commemorative jetton of some sort. The building/monument is most likely an image of the large memorial to Tsar Alexander II that stood inside the Kremlin walls untill the Bolsheviks tore it down after the 1917 Revolution. Regards

A now defunct on-line company in California named Sovietski imported hundreds of Soviet USSR railroad plaques of all kinds into the US in the 1990s. To increase their marketability, their on-line catalog description was worded to make it sound like these were also used on government buildings. It deliberately glossed over their almost exclusive use on railway cars. I once spoke with the folk at Sovietski and was interested to discover their interest in selling only stuff that was immediately ready to mail to customers once it arrived in their warehouse. As a result, I assume that the plaques were cleaned up somewhere in the former USSR after they were removed from rolling stock but before they were shipped to Sovietski. Almost all plaques sold by Sovietski had two small screw holes drilled in the areas inside or around the "CCCP" letters to facilitate hanging by Sovietski's cistomers. On my trips to Russia, I have seen dozens of places where Soviet-era plaques are fastened to building facades even today, primarily in situations where a company was awarded something like the Order of Lenin before 1991. In my limited experience, none of the building plaques still on display has a construction that looks anything like one of the railway plaques. So, from a marketing standpoint, I think that the Sovietski folk had a great idea when they sold their RR plaques as possibly having come off of government and military buildings. Regards

Nothing beats actually being able to hold something in one's hand. Do you have a friend who collects jettons who could inspect it for you in person? The engraving on any individually named Russian jetton that I've ever owned looked different than this. In your photo, I think that it looks like the date and other information have been cast on to the surface rather than engraved. Considering the fact that permission had to be obtained from the Tsar's government before anyone could reproduce a doubleheaded heraldic eagle on literally anything in pre1917 Russia (badge, advertisement, whatever) I would expect the detail on the eagle here would look crisper than it does in your photo. I am not trying to be an alarmist. We've both seen questionable items of militaria look good in photos and righteous things look very questionable. That's the problem with photographs. As I said at the outset, if you know someone who collects these, you could probably really gain aditional information from having him look at it in person. Regards

Per Durov's 2005 book, your Order of Lenin was definitely manufactured between 1951 and 1955 and could have been awarded to a Soviet citizen at any point up to the end of the USSR. Many were shipped out to government offices that had virtually no call to award the medal more than a few times a year and, for that reason, the order you have could have sat in a drawer for many years before finally being awarded... Regards

I haven't seriously collected FFL badges since the 90s, but as I recall, Kepi Blanc has sold restrikes of Legion badges for many years. Some may have come from original molds while others were from new-made dies that reproduced unit badges that were originally made locally (i.e. whatever god-forsaken location where the unit was stationed). Their earlier repros did not have an R on them and require a little experience to be able to detect. I think that the badges were sold to raise money for Legion vets but I cannot swear to that. As I recall, the earliest and possibly first reference book on legion badges was a paperback book printed by Kepi Blanc. When I owned a copy of it, I believed that the photos in it were of original badges

I have a copy of it. What do you want to know? Regards

My court of last resort for obscure naval and military information has always been Guido Rosignoli. He was the most prolific author on WW2 and Post-War Uniforms, ribbons and insignia. I have about a half dozen books that he wrote and I've just gone through them: there's nothing on Bulgaria anywhere in them. In the past. when truly desperate, I've had luck contacting the embassy or consulate of a specific country and asking for help, sometimes enclosing a couple photos of whatever it was that I had that needed to be identified. Virtually every embassy has some sort of military attache on its staff; even if the guy is actually a spy or secret policeman, he may still be able to help you. Regards

I cannot provide you with any helpful information but I can offer you some consolation. Once the caps arrive you will probably be overwhelmed by how poorly they are made. I do not know about Bulgarian military headgear from WW2 and before, but virtually all hats made since that war are incredibly shoddy in their construction. They may actually be some of the worst ever made. You will quickly notice that the crowns on them all seem to have been made by factory that also made baby pilllows. You just need to know that this is not a situation where a dealer or fellow collector has cheated you - the blame goes to whichever Bulgarian QM department is responsible for contracting for and accepting such terrible hats... Regards

I think that most of the stars seen here are incorrectly oriented on the boards - and also have the slightly out of kilter look that I usually associate with stars that have been applied by collectors rather than at a Soviet factory or by a Soviet military tailor. Also: I haven't collected Soviet 'boards for many years, but are the stars on the company grade boards also the wrong size? Regards...

Dear Mervyn, After the holidays are over, certainly by 10 January, I'll post photos of my four daggers in this thread (Soviet Navy w/WW2 date, Soviet Army, Soviet Air Force with an etched presentation, Russian Federation navy). I feel that we all owe Phil2012 a debt of gratitude. I've seen photos before of Russian & Soviet naval personnel receiving their officer daggers in ceremonies(usually along with their new officer's shoulder boards), but I've never seen that ritual with the champagne glasses! For the record, many of the current Russian naval daggers that I've seen in recent years have central grip sections that do not fit as well as the grips on older, Soviet era daggers. If you buy one on the Internet, look at the photo carefully to see if the narrow "panels" on the four corners of the handle line up satisfactorily with the metal fittings above and below. Frankly, some of the modern handles could be made of some type of wood - it certainly does not appear to be any of the composition materials used "back in the day." Regards.

For a few years now, a prominent American dealer in Third Reich edged weapons has had one of the post-USSR Russian naval dirks on his site for US$ 395.00. His description reads in part, "“The front section of the pommel displays the Russian two headed eagle with crown above. … On the obverse [of the blade] there is a number etched in, “2005” and below that the letter, “C”. I believe this is an accountability number not the date as this piece looks to be from the 1960s or 70s. " Current Russian Federation naval daggers with post-2000 dates on the blades do show up every once in a while in the US at gun shows. They are offered at various prices but most dealers seem to be willing to settle for a final price somewhere in the three hundred dollar range. Because the eagle on the pommel identifies them as not being Soviet, they seem to be very slow sellers - unless, of course, a collector is working on a "type" collection (which is why I bought one!) Regards

I think that the ribbon on Wayne's Serbian decoration is actually the correct one for Emperor Maximillian's Order of the Mexican Eagle (Aguila Mexicana). I cannot remember the plot of the movie at all or what Wayne's character's backstory was supposed to be, but I'll bet that the film's art director was trying to suggest that this was a Mexican honor that Wayne had received. I'll wager that when the studio went looking for a suitable Mexican award to use as a prop, some enterprising dealer sold them the cross and ribbon as a real deal mid-19th century award - and the art director, having no idea what he was looking at, bought the story... Regards.

You are probably referring to a deluxe red-bound volume that listed all of the recipients of the enamelled Order of St. George. The good news is that any lists of the names of the enlisted men and ncos who received the St. George cross (lists that weren't lost or destroyed during two world wars and the Revolution) have been reprinted in Russia; the bad news is that, at least as of the last time I checked (back in 2010), all of the publications giving the lists were out of print. Regards

Back in the 70s or maybe even into the 80s, cased "Lenins" like the one you've shown here sold readily at gun shows in the NE USA for $800 each. "Back in the day," noone had a clue what a proper Soviet medal box was supposed to look like. And the fact that the recess for the pendant doesn't quite fit right (at least on the one I own) apparently didn't set off anybody's alarms either. BTW: I acquired mine from a friend whose immediate response to discovering that he owned a fake was always to quite literally throw the offending item away. Once or twice, it was my good luck to be standing between him and the nearest trash can when he did that!) The obverse certainly matched any reference photo that was available at the time and absolutely no one had any idea what the back of an Order of Lenin was supposed to look like. Frankly, the pendant's overall appearance has held up quite well over the years and even now, if separated from its stupid case, could probably still present problems for begining collectors. If mounted next to a Red Banner that has "gone dark," many collectors might not immediately question the fake Lenin's "gold" finish. I suspect that most of the dealers who sold these must have known that they were fakes since it was not uncommon to see that anyone selling one frequently had others tucked away under his table. Regards