Soviet Soviet Award "Mythbuster"!

[NavyFCO]

All:

Forgive me if I am telling you something you already know. However, I was just reading a thread this morning on here and this "myth" was mentioned, so I thought I'd "bust the myth"!

For about the first twelve years of my Soviet award collecting career (which means "up till about two years ago" but it sounds better!) I always thought that the small half-moon shaped "swing" scratches on the reverse of hanging awards was from their rubbing up against other awards while hanging.

Well, that's not the case.

Those scratches actually come from the award being stored with the back of the award in contact with the metal pin/clasp on the back of the kolodka (ribbon mount.) If you take a hanging award that has the scratches on it, fold it in half the way that it would be naturally folded (most Soviet ODM don't like to lay well when folded face-first on the ribbon) with the reverse of the award touching the back of the hanger. Observe how the scratches line up with the pin.

If they don't line up or don't exist, I submit two theories:

1) If they don't exist, that means that your award either was worn mounted in a group, and thus didn't have a pin to rub against or it was never stored with the back of the award touching the pin.

2) If the scratches don't line up, I am pretty confident in saying that you probably have a replaced hanger.

Hope that clears up some misconceptions for everyone. I remember "back in the day" when seeing those scratches indicated to me that a medal was worn, even if things indicated that it was fake. In reality, all that had happened was that it had been stored that way and the pin had rubbed on the metal, perhaps even encouraged by the faker to make it look somehow aged.

Enjoy!

Dave

Edited December 20, 2005 by NavyFCO

[NavyFCO]

Here are a few photos of what I'm talking about. First, here's the back of a beautiful RBL awarded to Pavel Kachurets in 1953. You can see the "half moon" scratches on the reverse...

[NavyFCO]

Now, here's a shot at how this award was stored. It makes a nice tidy package when stored like this, and it naturally tends to end up like this in a dealer's bag...

[NavyFCO]

Here's the third and final shot. In this photo you can see how the pin matches up with the scratches!

Thus, the end of the "myth" that the scratches indicate rubbing on another medal... Nope, they just show how the medal was stored!

[Dudeman]

Be careful in how you define "scratches". There are "scratches" or what I would call "dings" that definitely show a medal has been worn many years in the company of other medals, usually on a ribbon bar.

I have seen this most frequently on silver Bravery and Combat Service Medals. These dings take the shape of a 1-2mm "crescent moon" or slightly curved, perpendicular straight lines. If looking at the award's reverse, they are usually on the left side and the perpendicular lines (relative to the ground) are horizontal to each other. This is a result of the awardee's medal being the highest in his award grouping and the softer silver medal beat up against harder bronze campaign medals or jubilee medals. The dings are of varying depth, but usually most deep and prevalent on the reverse's center left where the most contact would have been with accompanying medals.

These are a sure sign of a genuine medal, and genuine, long wear over the years. Their absence of course means either the medal wasn't worn frequently, was worn independently of others and didn't come into contact with them, or any other host of reasons.

[Guest Rick Research]

Son of a gun!!! Will now perform the Dave Test on such pieces--

[Stogieman]

Now that's a pretty fair piece of detective work!

[HuliganRS]

When I get back home from Mexico, I'll give it a go!

Rusty.

[Dudeman]

Be careful in how you define "scratches". There are "scratches" or what I would call "dings" that definitely show a medal has been worn many years in the company of other medals, usually on a ribbon bar.

I have seen this most frequently on silver Bravery and Combat Service Medals. These dings take the shape of a 1-2mm "crescent moon" or slightly curved, perpendicular straight lines. If looking at the award's reverse, they are usually on the left side and the perpendicular lines (relative to the ground) are horizontal to each other. This is a result of the awardee's medal being the highest in his award grouping and the softer silver medal beat up against harder bronze campaign medals or jubilee medals. The dings are of varying depth, but usually most deep and prevalent on the reverse's center left where the most contact would have been with accompanying medals.

These are a sure sign of a genuine medal, and genuine, long wear over the years. Their absence of course means either the medal wasn't worn frequently, was worn independently of others and didn't come into contact with them, or any other host of reasons.

These are the "dings" to which I referred above.

[Christophe]

Dave and Dudeman,

Interesting posts .

I had also made these remarks to myself and reached the same conclusions as you.

Dave,

"Your" scratches, I think, will probably be more and more present, due to the presence in dealers bags, as you noticed it. And, moreover, as there is often pressure in the bags due to storage, the medals are "pressed" against each others. They also are often shown, taken from plastic bags... When kept at home by the awardee (in their box, or everywhere else), the "pressure" was certainly lower...

Dudeman,

What's this ribbon ?

Cheers.

Ch.

Edited December 25, 2005 by Christophe

[Dudeman]

Dudeman,

What's this ribbon ?

Cheers.

Ch.

Ribbon doesn't go with the Bravery Medal (I think 50th anniversary of Victory if I remember correctly). I bought it this way and haven't switched it out for the appropriate Bravery Medal ribbon.

[Christophe]

Ch.

[Gerd Becker]

Dave,

i have tested your hypothesis with an ORB and a Glory, which have these scratches. Both were indeed caused from the hinge of the needle.

Very interesting!

Gerd