A buddy of mine is serving in Afghanistan with the German army, and sent me some photos from a market selling medals and coins. Some cool stuff and apparently very, very cheap. He is on the lookout for a couple of awards for me..
Yes, a lot of things are available. Some are at low prices and some at clinically insane prices. On the famous "Chicken Street" in Kabul, the ISAF was popularly known as the "International Shopping Assistance Force".
The interesting thing to me is the abundance of the 1985 GPW orders and veteran medals...best explanation is that they have been smuggled in over the years for sale?
Oh certainly of recent importation. After 1991 tons of stuff came south (I have seen many things in Pakistan and India -- literally available by the kilo). Many (most) have the screw-post folded over by loving attention from a very large hammer. The intention was remelting for manufacture into things like low-quality tourist jewelery. I've salvaged suspension gallantry medals and suspension CSMs at just over the market price for silver.
You'll see some pre-1991 Soviet stuff in Kabul, some with a "history". But most is of recent importation to sell to the foreign occupation forces. The Afghan buyers show up in Delhi from time to time and vaccum up things for resale.
medals73 Wrote:Yes, a lot of things are available. Some are at low prices and some at clinically insane prices. On the famous "Chicken Street" in Kabul, the ISAF was popularly known as the "International Shopping Assistance Force".
How about we keep the political comments aside and focus on what is important, expanding our personal collections of orders and medals!!!!:thumbsup
I have to agree that your friend needs to open up his own section on the marketplace and help us acquire some of those beauties. I even noticed a few Uzbek medals in there...I bet every single one of those medals has an interesting story behind it.
03-30-2012, 12:59 PM (This post was last modified: 03-31-2012, 01:49 AM by CtahhR.)
Pravda Wrote:How about we keep the political comments aside and focus on what is important, expanding our personal collections of orders and medals!!!!:thumbsup
I have to agree that your friend needs to open up his own section on the marketplace and help us acquire some of those beauties. I even noticed a few Uzbek medals in there...I bet every single one of those medals has an interesting story behind it.
Cheers,
Pravda
Greetings Pravda .... my comment not meant to be political .... Lots of acronyms in my line of work and it is rather funny to see someone comes up with a different funny sequence of words.
Just in case y'all did not know ... US Army forces in Afghanistan also wear the ISAF patch on their left sleeve above their unit patch.
