Order of the Red Star....opinions

[Lorenzo Brown]

Look at this Order of the Red Star. The medal looks good to me, but the reverse has a strange pitted texture that I've never seen before. Also notice how the mint mark is pitted...but the serial number is not, as if it was done recently.
Any opinions on this one?

[mott5ranch]

Yours looks good to me. What do you think of mine...Big Red and Mini Red.

[mott5ranch]

Now the back side....

[paddywhack]

right what i think you have there mott5ranch is a replacment red star cos the number is queit low so it could well be replacement for a lost or stolen ww2 one! il see what they say on the soviet forum

[Gene]

Low? It's in the 3 million range, putting it postwar, no?

[paddywhack]

i thought it was lorenzos one!!!!

[paddywhack]

right time i got my eyes test your right!!(after 6 hours at this damn computer my eyes are playing tricks on me!!!) no it looks fine cos in the late 50s they started using less real sivler in the medals as far as i know!

[Rick Research]

No problemo Lorenzo-- occasionally you find these rough reverses-- which makes aletering a serial number much harder. Don't know why anyone WOULD, unless trying to "fit" one to a missing one in a group. The surface texture remains in the mint stamp because that was hand done and shallow, while the serial number was cut trhough with an electrtic pen sort of thing.

#2,981,006 = February 1951

#3,397, 136 = 1955 but I have many fewer numbers to narrow to exact month of issue.