Moscow State University Badge.

[deValcourt]

This is another item that came in a batch today. I really like it, but I can't figure out what decade it is from or what purpose it might have had. My affinity for it is in it's simplicity and subtle quality of detail.

It is a small (~3cm x 2.5cm) pinback ornate image of the Moscow State University main building's tower (the first of the so-called "Seven Sisters" of Stalin's skyscrapers built after the GPW). There is no mint mark on it. It appears to be made of silver-plated brass.

I suppose it could have been made for tourists in the 1950s (since impressing tourists was the alleged purpose behind Stalin's drive to have the "Сталинские высотки" - "Stalin's Tall Buildings (Towers)" - built). But if that were the case, one would think that there would be some Soviet designation, at least a CCCP. But the only letters are "MGU" at the base. Since it cannot be older than 1953, I can only guess that it was possibly for undergraduate students or sold to locals. It could be post-Soviet, but the leaves and banner suggest otherwise, to me at least. :confused:

Phillip