Soviet award questions

[jlava]

Evening all,
I was wondering what the "going" rate might be on some Soviet awards...namely the:
Order of the Red Star, numbered
Order of the Red Banner (type II) numbered
Oder of glory, third class- numbered
All them were offered at 33 to 40 bucks apiece....and that sounds low, thusly hence and ergo I'm inquiring to the select few who seem to collect this stuff...
oh, anyone have recomends on books/web sites for info on fakes, repros, construction etc. on this sort of collectible?
thanks again,
jason

[Gene]

Jason,

If all are WW2 Issue, about the only medal listed with an accurate price was the Red Banner. The Red Star, with a seven digit serial number less than 2,500,000 and the Order of Glory 3rd class should be around $15 and $20-$25 respectively. Visit Igor Moiseyev's site to get and idea for current market values. His prices are fair and not jacked up. When it comes to books, the one that comes to mind above and beyond all others is The Comprehensive Guide to Soviet Orders and Medals by Paul McDaniel and Paul Schmitt. It runs just under $100 for a signed copy (they're all signed, from what I've seen). This book is a bible of the Russian stuff and is great to have even if you don't collect it.

[Rick Research]

I agree with Gene. Serial numbers and variants are EXTREMELY important for any "accurate" price.

BTW, my first run pre-public offering "Bible" was NOT signed!

[paddywhack]

try this site for ALL your russain needs http://soviet-awards.addr.com/forum/index.php3?
great forum and there are other total soviet collecters on this forum .and my edition of mc daniels book isnt signed either maybe the unsigned ones are rare then the signed!!!!
as for the red star and red banner its very hard to know what they were awarded for cos until the early 50s they both were awarded for long service!!!
still great medals and orders to collect and there very affordable for the new collecters!

[Rick Research]

"Total"? Say it tisn't so!

Actually, I have been building a data base of serial numbers for years, and the HUGE clumps of long service awards that occurred in 1944 and 1945 can be fairly certainly ID'd. In the 1950s, these long service awards tended to cluster in November and December each year, so an educated inference can be made about many such awards, in the absence of any other data. There were exceptions, of course-- a search on "Maguta" here will bring up two 1944 Red Banners bestowed on the same recipient only a couple of days (and numbers) apart--one for long service and one as a real decoration.

The same thing happened with civil orders in the 1960s and 1970s-- MOST of the Orders of Labor Glory 3rd Class, for instance, were given in a torrent lasting only a few months. The Badge of Honor had a similar surge.

So don't assume "all the answers" are... someplace else!

Got Soviet questions?

Ask them in this Forum!!!

[paddywhack]

iv got a order of the red banne s/n90337 any chance of a date for it?
do you have any s/n for alexander nevsky? mine is s/n 41268
any chance of a date on that? any help is cool
and how can the long service ones be told apart from the combat ones? also wasnt the order of lenin awarded for long service to till they bought the long service awards?
as for "total"collecter maybe that was the wrong word how about avid?

[Rick Research]

Ah bein' a chip o' the Old Sod and in love with playing with words, I'd say "perfervid" myself!

ORB 90,337 was one of the first ribboned suspension types, probably about October 1943.

The Nevsky would have been about June 1945, since most of them were awarded in the rush of final vistory February 1945 into that summer.

The thing is, during the entire WAR, the serial numbers on Soviet ORDERS were NOT consecutive: boxes of pre-numbered Orders were allocated to differenet commands: one in heavy action might have been going through their third crateload before a rear area outfit had finished with their first allotment. I've seen screwback ORBs awarded late in 1944 from units that had "leftover" stock to use up.

I personally wouldn't touch a Lenin without military documentation, since there was no design difference, and it could have been awarded for increased potato harvest as easily as for heroism.

Lenins in the serial number range of about 20,000- 30,000 were the initial "mass" awards for long service on 21 February 1945. Obviously not ALL in that range were, but the bulk of them were.

Red Banners in the serial number range 11X,XXX to 199,XXX were long service awards on 3 November 1944. Again, not ALL, (see the "Maguta" thread), but most were.

Red Stars of about 910,000 to 1,0XX,XXX were 3 November 1944 mass long service awards, as above.

Military Merit Medals (commonly and quite erroneously called "Combat Service Medals") around serial number 1,5XX,XXX were 3 November 1944 mass long service awards. I don't have a good range on beginning-ending serials for these then.