Fantasy piece?

[medaldude]

Hello All,

I've seen several different badges of this type with the center part showing a different sport. Look at the backplate. Real or fantasy:confused:

Thanks,

Tom

[otlichnik]

Tom,

Good question. The original was a military sportsman badge. I suspect that what you have is not a fake but not official military issue either. Likely just some sort of sports award made up for some event. Why not use existing badge pieces as your base???

Shawn

[k3rvmfusa]

I acquired a few different variants of this type of sports badge in Russian in the early 1990s. I believe it is a civilian sports badge. I've seen three classes for this sports badge -- 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

[k3rvmfusa]

Here's a generic one that I acquired. It would seem logical that variants of this badge were awarded for differing sports.

[otlichnik]

The generic ones, when in genuine brass, not aluminum, are quite early, 1960's I think. I also think they were military onely, the predecessor of the later militar sportsmen badges.

Shawn

[Nota Bene]

Gentlemen,

This is a combination of a 1950 Third Class Military Sportsmqan Badge and (me thinks) a ceter medallion from Armed Forces Competition Badge (1970s series). The question is, who would ruin two perfectly good badges, spend a lot of time and create this fantasy, knowing that it would still cost $3-5? My guess would be that it is an earlier conversion to make an unofficial award.

Alexei

[otlichnik]

Alexei,

Just to clarify. I assume you are talking about the first picture (medaldude's) with the skiing medallion stuck on. The one k3rvmfusa posted later matches my own and the one pictured in Borisov (#201) perfectly and is indeed genuine.

Shawn

The

[Nota Bene]

Shawn,

Yeah, I am talking about the first one. I think it was made using parts of the two badges I have mentioned. Could be a fantasy piece or something that "shop-made" for some small local award.

Alexei

[Chuck In Oregon]

I have seen many versions of military sports badges that are similar to medaldude's. I can't comment on the fake/locally made issue, just that there are a lot of them. I collect shooting awards, among others. Here are three of them, along with a fourth sports badge. The top left is quite similar to medaldude's, except for the sport. Also, my screwplate is different and carries a maker's mark and "Moscow" (in Cyrillic).

I suppose this could just be made up from something like the center of the bottom badges attached to a generic award, but I think it is more likely that it is genuine.