New Addition - Defense of the Caucasus

[Thomas Durante]

Hi guys, one more addition, this one for the Defense of the Caucasus. Its a Type 1b variant with original separely attached eyelet. The 2-part suspension also looks nice and early, but the ring has been cut so most likely switched out at some point. The ribbon is a nice fit to the suspension and nicely soiled, just the way I like em for display. Hope you guys like this one as much as I do.

Thanks

Tom

[Marcel Banziger]

Also a good one but it is one of the later stamped 1st variants. The early stampings have the three tankriders holding rifles. Due to the original stamp being worn out the details started to fade. This resulted in the later stamped 1st variant medals having the three tankriders without their rifles.
See the link for the variations which I managed to collect:
http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/orders...medals-722748/

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Marcel,

Thanks for the reply and link to your medals, very nice!

Interesting about the tankers with rifles, certainly a variant I will try to look for if it is the earliest variant as you say. Interestingly enough, the Mondvor site doesn't show the 3 rifle variant in their early variants; the only distinction they make is on the reverse with the differences in the Sickle handle. They surmise that the variant with the bump or "pimple" on the Sickle handle is the earliest, yet neither variant shows any tankers with rifles! So where would the rifle variant examples fit in the timeline?

So the 3 earliest variants I see are as follows:

1a. Tankers with rifles - no pimple on the sickle handle.
1b. Tankers without rifles - pimple on the sickle handle.
1c. Tankers without rifles - no pimple on the sickle handle.

If this timeline is correct, then they were mixing obverse and reverse dies together to create these 3 different early variants, correct?

Tom

[Marcel Banziger]

Hello Tom,

Mondvor does mention these "three rifle" medals. They write: "Among the medals of the first variant, there are occasionally specimens in which rifles are visible behind the backs of soldiers riding a tank. Perhaps such medals belong to the earliest issues. Later, due to wear (or repair), the small details of the stamp were lost, and all subsequent issues of the medal did not have “rifles” behind the backs of the soldiers. Information about such medals will be supplemented in the next updates."

And according to CollectRussia: "The vertical "rifles" behind the three tank-borne infantrymen are clearly visible. This feature is believed to be unique to the earliest version of the medal and was apparently lost on the subsequent editions of the mint's stamp."

When it comes to the 'pimples' I see this as a variation in the stamp and not as much as part of a timeline. Similar, simultanious differences can be seen with other campaign medals as well. For example the long and short horizon Defense of Leningrad medal. These are just differences in the stamp and do not necessarily mean one is before or after the other.

Matt from Soviet Orders has a very nice "three rifle" for sale now btw.
https://sovietorders.com/product/med...tion-1-rifles/

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Marcel,

Thanks for the reply. Sorry, I should have been more clear on my earlier post, Mondvor does indeed mention the 3 rifles, but its more of an afterthought in my opinion and the pictured variants don't show any of the 3 rifle examples, although they will most likely add one to the variant list in the future.

Thanks for the link to Matt's site, I will check it out.

Thanks very much Marcel.


Tom