For Service To The Motherland In The Armed Forces Of The USSR.

[Lapa]

Hi Bob,

Nice pictures, no argument about that. I wish I had the same type of equipment you have, I sure would have a lot of fun.

I am a little surprized by some of the conclusions you drew from your pictures. Please correct me if I misunderstood you.

I feel that most of the details you have shown are not irrefutable proofs of a genuine piece. I am a practicing enameler, and I also know about and have used various plating processes. To me, all the details displayed do not present much problem in duplicating on a 3rd class order. Only one thing, IF it is actually as you describe it, would be impossible to duplicate with a simple process: your conclusion for photos 4.1.and 4.2. However, under high magnification (I have a high-power stereo microscope) I find it impossible to see what you describe because the enamel is opaque. Also, some light residue can sometime be found between the enamel and the metal which is due to the use of a substance called "fondant" intended to help the enamel better stick to the metal (You can usually see it better on Red Stars where it tends to appear as a slight yellowish deposit between the enamel and the metal).

My point here is that, because the blue enamel used is of the opaque kind, light cannot go through it and show what is below it; this blue enamel is of the same kind as the white one used on the center medallion for instance. You can easily notice that you cannot see through any part of that enamel.

To ME (I insist on that point), pictures 4.1 and 4.2 show some shadowing that is due either to the lighting, or more likely to the edge of the enamel not being absolutely flat, but creeping up very slightly on the metal edge (a physical phenomenon - known as a menisk - identical to the behaviour of water in a glass, for instance). In the present case, the menisk is concave.

Regarding the guilding, the only suggestion I can have regarding genuineness would be the absence of guilding inside any small scratches due to wear, in a similar way to fake Orders of Glory II class. Short of that, there are several processes that can be used to guild any sort of piece - from quite simple to rather complex and requiring specific equipment - all of which could duplicate what you have shown, albeit more or less successfully.

In conclusion, I do not believe that the pictures shown here are reliable indicators of genuineness based on technical production consideration.

I welcome further technical criticism.

Marc