Deputy Of The Supreme Soviet Of The Kabardino-Balkar ASSR Badge.

[Aharim]

KBASSR first convocation

I was concerned about the brass screw on KBASSR so I looked and sure enough mine is brass as well. As are first convocation Chechen, first Convocataion Karelia ASSR (1938 issue before the winter war and creation of KFSSR). None of those are shown as bronze screw in Mekhnoshin. (Sometimes they are silver or gold plated and the underneath medal does not show well.) Mekhnoshin does show/list Udmurt and Ukraine with brass/bronze screws on first convocation, so you may want to annotate your copies of his book. Attached are scans of reverse/obverse of KBASSR - 1st convocation from my collection.

[Aharim]

Results of the auctions are in:

KBASSR - $3270 reached as a result of 30 bids from 9 different bidders;

About that KBASSR - that item seemed familiar so I checked my archives and found saved photos of the same badge from an auction of approximately April 07 (pictures below). Note the darker areas near the staff which can be seen with some apparent cleaning on this year's photos. I don't have pricing from that auction currently.

One other thing noted was a particular bidder - don't you hate the fact that we can't know our competition now with the new "protections" - who apparently only has bid on items of this seller in the last 30 days, but unsuccessfully. That bidder submitted one bid on 8 different soviet items and two on the expensive KBASSR badge. It just feels bad, like that bidder WAS the reserve.

But that notwithstanding, the market though thin (9 - 14 individuals deep), is quite strong. (Please note none of those 9 or 14 were me - I showed you mine so I did not need to bid and did not submit any protective/price support bids either - I am not/was not a shill.) In 2000/1 most All red Supreme Soviet badges were in the 500+ range. Most of the gain in market prices have occurred in the last couple years as a step increase market (up - then flat - then up - then flat).

But this strength of the market makes me want to post a survey/posting to see how many of us there are. After all there were more than 50 folks who at least looked here!

A.