1960 Special Divers Qualification Badges

[torstenbel]

Thanks for the Info Fritz. Gowen also has good supporting evedence that the badges being sold on their site ARE of Soviet make. The sellers have been very upfront, I can't fault them.

Sorry, but I am not with you here ... what 'good supporting evidence' does Gowen show on his site and what is it supporting? There is a story there in his listing, but not a shred of evidence in one way or another or have I missed something? Cheers, Torsten.

[uscob]

Sorry, but I am not with you here ... what 'good supporting evidence' does Gowen show on his site and what is it supporting? There is a story there in his listing, but not a shred of evidence in one way or another or have I missed something? Cheers, Torsten.

I think, we had the same problem before in another Thread. Because somebody is very nice, he must be right. Until we didn't saw the back and a detail of the Screw system, it's a restrike for me. I had several of them and they came for the same price, It's like selling a Knights Cross for 100 bucks , because somebody who came with a nice Story, found 2000 of them in a russian Warehouse.

[ehrentitle]

Unfortunately I dont' have the diver's badge discussed here. But I did pull out a couple Soviet badges that I purchased at Berlin Flea Markets in the late 1980s to compare with my "Russian" made copy of the Classification Badges for Member of the Parachute Service (1960-63) (Klassifizierungsabzeichen für Angehörige des Fallschirmdienstes) that I purchased a few years ago. They all have the same makers mark, style of screw post and screw plate.

I'm not sure what the maker mark represents. But the story given at the time by a flea market seller was that these badges were made under contract in East Germany for the Group of Soviet Forces Germany.

Here are some quick scans of the front and back of these badges with the corresponding screw plate under each badge:

[jkeegen]

Knowing Gowen, he probably isn't trying to be deceitful. I'm more likely to believe that his source for the badges provided the story on his website and he is trusting that source. If he's quilty of anything, it would be not researching the provenace of the badges himself.

I'll see if I can't more information regarding them from him and will report back to the forum.

[ehrentitle]

Ok, I've identified the makers mark on these badges, its a cyrillic "P" inside a star which is the mark used in the 1970s, 1980s and later by the Pobeda ("Victory") Factory in Moscow. The Pobeda mark from the 1960s was a hexagon with the cyrillic "P" inside. So any badge made in the 1960s by this company would have had the hexagonal mark, not a star.

This evidence, along with the striking similarity of these badges to late 1980s Soviet badges made by the same company, strongly suggest that the Russian made NVA badges discussed in this thread were collector's copies made by Pobeda in the latter part of 1980s or early 1990s.

For 1970s & 1980s Pobeda made Soviet badges see: http://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITEM.HTM?ITEM=19454 and http://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITE...HTM?ITEM=18018

For 1960s Pobeda Factory mark see: http://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITE...HTM?ITEM=24507 and
http://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITE...HTM?ITEM=13648

This company's post 1960s cyrillic "P" inside a star mark is also found on reproductions of rare Soviet badges from the 1930s to 1950s. See: http://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITEM.HTM?ITEM=18114 and
http://www.collectrussia.com/DISPITEM.HTM?ITEM=18121