Imperial Russia Crimean War 1853-1856 medal

[Noor]

Hi,

Here is one nice Imperial Russia award from Crimean war period. Its looks like its noncombatant one - dark bronze or is it impossible to say? Is it correct that there was 1 465 700 light bronze medals for combatants and 150 000 dark bronze medals for noncombatants and suporters?

What would be the market value at the moment?

[Noor]

Can anyone, who have some reference materials confirm the numbers above please

Noor :cheers:

[Great Dane]

Hello Noor,

Prince Romanov's book "The Orders, Medals and History of Imperial Russia" (although not known for being very accurate) mentions both types (light and dark bronze), but doesn't say who got which or if it meant something at all. It claims, however, that the medal was awarded with four different ribbons to distinguish between the recipients:

"It was awarded to non-commisioned officers, petty officers, enlisted men and sailors who had taken active part on land or at sea against the enemy or had defended the naval base of Petropavlovsk (ribbon type: IV); to all other servicemen, who had taken indirect part in the conflict (ribbon type: I); to a regiment of Cossack Cavalry, that had taken active part in the war as well as to militia and deserving civilians (ribbon type: V); to merchants and civilians, who had helped the war effort or aided the wounded (ribbon type: VI)."

The book doesn't mention any numbers unfortunately...

/Mike

[Mark C]

See http://marksrussianmilitaryhistory.info/WarMedals.htm for specifics on criteria for award. Sorry, no information on numbers awarded. In the hundreds of thousands sounds right.

Regards,

Mark Conrad

Maryland

[Noor]

Thanks Mark! :beer:

[paul wood]

Thanks Mark!

According to Diakov. Medals of the Russian Empire part 5 more than 2,130,000 medals struck in light and dark bronze. Unfortunately the condition of your piece is very much at the lower end of the scale and I feel it would be worth very little thus possibly $20 a nice example with original riband would be worth about $100.

Paul