Snapshots from Victory day in Chisinau Moldova. For more
click on the photo.
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Last updated on:
14-Jan-2019
Welcome - click on menus above to see my collection or go below for all sorts of information!
Let us start with some words of wisdom....
I joined the phalerist world some 16 years
ago, encouraged by Vasilij and Victor, two experts
who really know their stuff and who were generous
enough to advise me and got me started. My site is designed to share with other collectors - I am not a dealer.
I am here to exhibit pieces I have or had in my collection and to keep contact with other phalerist enthusiasts.
Each
of my awards can be viewed from the above pull-down menus - then click on thumbnail for detail of
avers/reverse!
I try not to duplicate commonly available wisdom - for more see Links to other reputable sites.
For info on the Ukrainian and Moldovan markets from past years see also Prices page. For the awards I need or for my own collection and my duplicate items - see Awards for exchange - make me an offer!
I focus almost exclusively on
Soviet awards and try to collect all types and
variations of awards and have by now many variations
and subvariations. Exceptionally I also have awards
of other countries (Czechoslovakia, Moldova, Mongolia,
Russia, Ukraine or another really interesting
place - an unrecognised statelet the "Transdniestrian
Moldovan Republic" (Transdniestria).
Not the most stunning awards but they are special
and include rare Cossack awards.
(1) generals and navy officers / генералы и морские офицеры)
(2) simple officers uniform / на однобортном офицерском мундире
(3) & (4) soldiers and sailors uniforms / на солдатском мундире и матросской форменке.
Other News
14 January 2019
Happy New Year to all! I remain concerned more about our common home and how we keep destroting our planet. If you are too visit my favourite ecologically minded website - see www.myveganexperiment.com. My daughter Katherina works hard to achieve a plastic free world and reduce waste that is choking life on land and in theseas! You would be surprised how anyone of us can help ... reduce your use of plastic bags, do not accept or buy plastic cups or straws, avoid plastic packaging and buy only those products that do not destroy our environment.
Medal prices seem to be edging up ... after a long lul but nothing special to report. In Athens on Monastiraki square there is a small antique shop where I came accrose a few orders. An order of the Red Star for example with ahigh number was offered for 100 euros. In Hungary not much medals around.
1 March 2016
Shame on me but little to report since last year, except a few additions in the coin department. See some fine Maidan commemorative coins from Ukraine that I finally added to my collection !!!!
Also added a new addition to the Transdnistrian Series "Russians" commemorative coin 5 rubles - A.I. LEBED" (1950-2002).
Also added to the collection is a badge of a former member of the Ukrainian 7th Parliament (Verkhovna Rada), a badge 300 years of Ukraine Russian reunion and one new addition to Belarus.
Collecting medals is getting difficult...prices remain high but the choice is not best!
The main problem continues to the number of fakes. Prices are a bit down but nothing special. No time for updates and no new additions...but I did turn the 370.000 mark of unique visitors!!! I have aquired a colonels uniform and some TD coins ... just no time to add them to the site.
January - December 2009
In Moldova at least ... prices for Soviet orders have dropped. Hard to believe but not by much they simply take longer to sell ...everyone waits for the prices to go up again...
I got some more TD coins to complete my 2008 and 2009 collection... and still looking for the Sherrif football club though!!
November 2008
I added several pages of Transdniestrian coins and thanks to my friend Zhenja in Kishinev I updated info on Soviet orders on the Prices page.
December 2007
Nothing much new except that the demand is clearly oustripping demand, even the latest forthcoming Auction in New York of the Galerie Numismatique (Lausanne) has only a few pieces on offer.
October 2007
I have recently travelled through Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus much and discovered that the only medals for sale are either all fakes (including declared copies) or just simply suspicious and outrageously priced pieces... . The collector clubs still deal in coins and stamps but good medals and orders are kept in pockets. In Belarus the subject is totally taboo and the only place to see medals are on chests of veterans or in Musea. Gone are the days of buying. On 9 September 2007, I saw and spoke to real veterans - celebrating the day of tankists! Nice event, chatted to a fellow, must have been 90, now a colonel with several orders of Bogdan Chmelnitski (two awarded by Ukraine in recent years), three Red Stars, three orders of the Great Patriotic War etc. who vividly remembered the battles for Konigsberg and Kharkov. For photos click here.
April 2007
Nothing new to add except perhaps that the collectors club in Kishinev is grinding to a halt, several collectors have dissapeared - it is rumoured that they were either arrested or are in hiding after visiting Kiev with goods that included old swords...thus criminal liability for unathorised carrying of (cold) weapons! Prices have gone through the roof and fakes abound.
December 2006
Some news from Afghanistan: I visited markets in Kabul, Herat and Mazar and found very few awards from the Soviet days. In fact, apart from a few jubilee medals, the most common were orders of motherhood! I also saw a few orders of the Mother Heroin - but all had their gold star peeled off. Prices were phenomenal, for example the Medal for Bravery 70 USD.
July - November 2005
Kiev collectors meet every Saturday in the Expo plaza some distance from the Centre of town. Hundreds of dealers exhibiting all sorts of antiques, including awards from 5am in the morning till late afternoon. Prices are high and many pieces are fakes, often of a very high quality and very difficult to recognise.
Milano collectors meeting was interesting to visit, not much to exchange really, a lot of fakes on sale or very high prices. I did see a Order of Glory 2nd class with document for 2.500 Euros from an Italian dealer, very nice!
III Auction of medals and orders of the La Galerie Numismatique held on 3 May 2004 in Lausanne (CH) on News page.
Attended annual meeting of Swiss Phalerist Society, their website is still down and nothing much new. Updated information on Transdniestrian awards from a book published recently in Tiraspol (in Russian). Very interesting indeed as aside from "newly" designed orders and medals specific to the "Transdniestrian Moldovan Republic", it would appear that the old soviet issue "Bravery during a fire" and Russian issue for "Saving a drowning life" medals (both established in Soviet times in 1957) are still used. See News page for info on Transdniestria, photos from Tiraspol are on News 4 where you can also learn more about the history of the Transdniestrian conflict. For photos of Moldova see www.photo.md.
90 translations of Rilke's "Larenopfer" by Alfred de Zayas into English published by Red Hen Press. Illustrations by Martin Andrysek, architecture student (Westminster University London). If in Geneva go to "Literart", Bld. Georges Favon 15, tel. 022/3114080. For a signed copy, contact the author on his guestbook www.alfreddezayas.com.
Falerists in Russia evidently under pressure not to trade in Soviet orders and medals - see to believe it!
Falerist society in Switzerland - more about it and recent Geneva auctions and prices on the Interesting page.
American arrested when leaving Russia - faced 7 years jail for Soviet medals see The Moscow Times.
A re-print of extracts of the Pravda (daily of the CP of the USSR) from 10 May 1945 given to surviving WWII veterans in Moldova. Also the "Decree" of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet instituted the medal Victory over Germany.
The "Gold Head" Lenin replaced Type 1, sometimes also referred to as the "Tractor Lenin" made from silver (1930). In 1934, the red star and flag, key symbols of the Soviet Union, were added, all from 650 proof gold more ...
I use image compression maitaining reasonable resolution (detailed images usually 75Kb & thumbnails 15Kb). All types and variation information
conforms to Mondvor.narod.ru.
I also compare with www.soviet-awards.com which follows the widely accepted standard of
Paul McDaniel and Paul J. Schmitt ("The Comprehensive
Guide to Soviet Orders and Medals") - thank you,
trust that I do not violate copyright law.
