Award Boxes/Cases.

[Bill Dienna]

For what this is worth I'll add this story...

Quite a few years ago I would regularly see Dmitri Markhov at the Meadowlands Militari Show in New Jrsey, where I would sometimes aquire an item from him. At one of the shows I commented that I had never seen any Soviet Orders or medals being offered in their original cases or boxes. In fact, I had no idea what the cases might even look like. Dmitri replied that there was no special signifigance atached to the boxes, and as a result they were not generally saved. At the next show, when I reached Dmitri's tables, he reached underneath the table and took out the small red box with the canvas-style covering, white interior, and no insert. He handed this to me and told me that this was the presentation box for virtually any Soviet award of signifigance. I asked him what had happened to the insert which I was sure must have been present at one time to receive the medal. Dmitri explained that there were no inserts; the box was used without any insert at all. So as of perhpas 10 years ago that was the information that I received from Dmitri on award boxes (By the way, when he handed me the box at that show it was not simply to show me an example; he was giving it to me as a gift).