Imperial Russia Imperial Russia Medal - Real or no?

[Linasl]

Greetings All.

I just bought an Imperial Russian small medal. There are two important things I do not know:

1. what is it for?

2. is it authentic or a copy?

Please provide any information you can.

Thanks. Linas

[JapanX]

This is not a medal.

This is a commemorative token.

Named one.

U.D.Levenshtein who graduated (?) from Imperial University of St. Vladimir (most likely this is the meaning of the abbreviation Им. Ун. Св. Вл.) in 1911.

We are talking about Imperial University of St. Vladimir in Kiev (founded in 1834 - its current name Киевский национальный университет имени Тараса Шевченко (КНУ им. Т. Шевченко)/Київський національний університет імені Тараса Шевченка)

Cheers,

Nick

[Linasl]

NIck - thanks a ton!

Linas

[Mathomhaus]

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

Edited June 1, 2013 by Mathomhaus

[Linasl]

Greetings Mathomhaus,

Unfortunately I know noone who is a collector of Russian jetons.

Thanks for your comments though.

Take care. Linas

[JapanX]

Well, the form of this token/jetton is pretty standard for "in commemoration of graduation from Imperial University" jettons from 1880+ period of time. And of course all such tokens can have imperial eagle at obverse, since these Universities were Imperial.

But this particular jetton has some strange features

1) enamel at obverse (usually there is no enamel)

2) there are no marks (at least I don't see them) and usually all such jettons were made in silver and had marks on the ring

3) engraving indeed looks strange (as the whole jetton quality overall)

I'll post a couple of examples of such jettons (in a couple of days) so everyone can form their own opinion

Cheers,

Nick

[Linasl]

Thanks for your input Nick.

Linas

[JapanX]

Ok.

Here we go

Vilnius University?

Unknown workshop

1886-1888.

Marked 84 + Vilnius coat of arms + initials of assay inspector A. Arzibashev

Weight 8,08 g

Size 22х32 mm

Obverse

[JapanX]

Reverse

[JapanX]

In commemoration of graduation from Vilnius University

Obverse

[Linasl]

Absolutely EXCELLENT JapanX.

Thanks a ton!!

Linas

[JapanX]

Reverse

[JapanX]

In commemoration of graduation from St.Petersburg University

Marked 84 + St.Petersburg coat of arms

Obverse

[JapanX]

Reverse

[JapanX]

Lycée of Cesarevitch Nickolay in Moscow

[JapanX]

Well, they said that your badge can be found in Gribanov catalogue (# 108).

Грибанов / Жетоны российской империи (Медицина,Красный Крест,благотворительность)/ ISBN: 5-225-04465-4/ Издательство: Медицина/ 1998

[JapanX]

The problem is that I don`t have this book so I can`t check this info...

Actually this catalogue (by its very name) should contain medicine, red cross and charitable badges.

Cheers,

Nick