Damaged, Repair, Clean, Preserve Soviet Awards And Documents.

[Kirchgoens]

It didn't come with docs, but our UzBubba scratched his name on the reverse of his OPW2. It looks like "Hamidov" to me ("Хамидов"). One day when I get it researched, it may speed things up?

[desantnik]

For the first time ever, today I defaced a Soviet decoration.

I accidentally dropped a RS, shattering the enamel on one of the rays on the kitchen floor. However much I'd like to blame one of my huligan daughters, in the end it's my doing. It's a shame because the set with docs, unit photos, and research belonged to a female medic in an engineer unit.

As hard as I've been hammered in the stock market, this almost feels as bad.

[Art]

Accidents happen Paul! I'm sure you could take it to a jewelers and have the enamel replaced so it looks very good..

[Kirchgoens]

I truly feel your pain... Last year I did the exact same thing. It was a beautiful wartime flatback OPW2 with fully intact enamel in great condition. I brought it home, so proud of my find, only to drop it on the ceramic tile of my kitchen floor in the first two hours. Two starpoints were shattered out, and I was heartbroken. Nothing breaks faster and easier than a wartime OPW2. I see more of them broken than intact, and I still think and agonize on my contribution to this late period homefront damage.

I'm not selling my stocks and mutual funds, and I continue to save, so that money will come back in spades one day. But my OPW2 will always be broken. I am sad and deeply bummed a year later.

[Christophe]

Sad story.... But it happens.
The worst thing in such a story is that you can only blame and feel angry against yourself : "why did I do this ? I should have taken more time, be more careful, etc..." But, that's part of life : we all do too many things at the same time.

Cheers.

Ch.

[marcotk]

Every collector's nightmare.. Also I guess we feel so bad in these occasions since these are unique items per se, If I loose my wallet with some $$ inside, I can re-earn the $$ but a damaged RS is for ever..

[Esteban_cool]

I remembered when my Polonia Restituta fell off my hands. Not as painful as a RS or OPW, but still one of my favorite and most loved pieces.

[ekclete]

I can feel your pain! Same happened to me with a Nevsky but back when they were cheap so the pain was not so severe.

[Aharim]

For my part I am always quite careful except, . . .

We tend not to turn the Air Conditioner on except when it is really needed. Now I had this Red Banner, 3rd award, with a 1 mm chip which went all the way through to the silver beneath. To protect it I put it away and did nothing to harm it, except for that thing about the AC.

Silver and enamel (which is essentially colored glass) expand and contract at different ratios as temperature changes, so, looking recently I discovered a lot of red glass in the envelop and 1 cm (no longer 1 mm) of clear silver where a red banner should be!

The chip had expanded due to temperature variation in the house, so beware. You can stand greater variance than your collection.

I am now looking into jeweller hot enamel (but maybe a lower temp than original) replacement. Arrgh! Thanks for making me feel not alone.

[Riley1965]

Hello Paul,
OUCH!!! Sometimes things just happen. I would take it to have new enamel put on it. With the documents and research with it it's still a valuable piece.

Doc