Soviet Order of October REvolution - Legit?

[deptfordboy]

Afternoon Gents.

I was at a medals fair in Bromley (South London) recently. One of the more reputable dealers there had an Order of the October Revolution with its award booklet. The order was engraved with a low number (around 7,900 mark) and looked good based on what I know from Mcdaniel bible and my medal at home.

The booklet was brown, embossed in gold script and looked in very good condition. It had a single entry for the order, with matching number and an award date of 1981. The price was OK (around ?130) so I thought I'd take a stroll round the other tables and come back in 5 min's to make an offer.

Now as you can probably guess, by the time I got back someone else had already bought it. My question is, did I miss out or is the booklet dodgy? My reasons for being suspicious are that such a low number would have been awarded before 1981?

Thanks in Advance

Gilbert

[Paul R]

This one sounds like a good question for Rick Research!

[Gerd Becker]

Someone mentioned unissued Orders books of the later type for this order. Maybe its one of them?

A 7.9XX Number should be awarded around 1971

I have one, numbered 73.462, which was awarded 1974

[NavyFCO]

I think 130UKP was probably a good price for the medal alone, without the award book. I can't rattle off Oct Rev. award numbers off the top of my head, but it doesn't seem unrealistic.

One thing to remember though is that England was the hotbed of put-together groups back during the "cheap" days of Soviet award collecting. Back when I could afford to buy stuff, I wouldn't touch a group that in any way came from or through hands in England. Not that you Brits are bad folks (I was big into collecting RNAS pairs and trios at the time, so I made buying trips over to England to buy for my collection anyway) but there were a few dealers in England that were churning out bad group after bad group, and literally flooding the market with bad groups at the time.

That really has nothing to do with your Oct. Rev that you saw at the show, but just a bit of free advice "buyer beware".

Dave

[Stogieman]

Yep, and I was warned also to stay away from UK based "groups". Like many other things, this stuff has circulated around the market now and pops up on both sides of the pond. Hence yet again forcing collectors to have to scrutinize every little detail, accept nothing at face value and make everyone's life just a little more absurd....

[deptfordboy]

Thanks Guys,

Yes, on the price I learnt a valuable lesson, if you see something for a reasonable (as supposed to ludicrous - some guy wanted ?50 to Brit WW1 RA pairs!) price at a fair, don't hang about as it won't be there for long! There was also an order of Lenin with book for ?495, also tempting but a high number. You live and learn...

Gilbert

Edited March 3, 2006 by deptfordboy

[order_of_victory]

I would say that that the number to low for its year.

My Order of the October Revolution is 61003 and was issued in 1973, hope that helps

[Guest Rick Research]

Don't lose any sleep--

as mentioned, that Orders Book was a fraud based on the number and date.

THIS

http://gmic.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=675

is a bit awkward, but if you copy and paste the main "types" post at the beginning and rearrange it however fits into taking-to-shows-format will work for you, it's a good check list for approximating whether any given edition of OB actually belongs to the period it purports to be.

Four digit numbers for OORs were crossed into five digit serials in 1971-72.

I suppose mocking up a blank book as fraudulent is better than the special corner of Hades reserved and waiting for 'em folks who ADD IN extraneous awards to existing OBs, thus ruining them.