Below is an example of very rare, very beautiful and unfortunately very fake Russian badge. Fakes of many rare Russian badges are 99.9% identical to the real once and this thread will be great just for the purpose of Id-ing fakes. Also, many badges are not documented anywhere and there is no good Enlish-language (actually not even good Russian language I know of) reference of this rewarding area of Soviet militaria collecting
I, for one, would love to see a badge forum. I've recently started collecting some of the old badges, as I've got most of the medals and orders now. I never though they were very interesting until recenltly, buy actually I find them as interesting as collecting medals.
We got off this subject for awhile, but if we can decide, I'll create the groups right away. I would like to keep it to one main group, Badges, and three subgroups of your choice. I don't want to go any more than this at this time because I want to keep things neat and organized.
So, come up with the three sub-groups you want in the new badges hierarchy. Also, think of a good description for each. They should be concise and communicate exactly what is to be found inside.
Also, new attachment size limitation of 50K forum-wide will be activated when the new forum groups start.
I NEVER bought mine. I showed the scan around and got a unanimous answer that it is, in fact, fake. My supplier in Latvia even mentioned who makes them in Estonia and St. Pb. Apparently they are a known entity in Russia similar to V badges.
According to the book " Badges of Soviet Armed Forces 1918-1991" the badge is 35 x 53 mm
