Glory.

[Norm Braddock]

Help pls. Confirmation that this serial number is 186701.

Thanks:thumbsup

[EricFG]

That'd be my guess.

[Auke]

No doubt.

[desantnik]

What other number did you consider?

[Norm Braddock]

Well, I see that the 1 has a longish nubby at the top-kinda like a 7 but missing the center nubby of the 7. Then I thought that Joesky the stamper/engraver might have had a bad day or a bad punch and missed the center nubby.

Thank you gentlemen! Off to research it shall go. And thank you Ericsky Ericovich Ericonovsky for the glory!:thumbsup

[Commissar]

I went to the annual local militaria show yesterday, there was only one guy selling Soviet items and he had an Order of Glory for sale.
I nearly bought it, I checked the back and the serial number was scratched off so I passed it up...why would its number be gone?

[desantnik]

I went to the annual local militaria show yesterday, there was only one guy selling Soviet items and he had an Order of Glory for sale.
I nearly bought it, I checked the back and the serial number was scratched off so I passed it up...why would its number be gone?

During the Soviet Union and even into the late 90's recipients were afraid of getting in trouble for selling their (researchable) decorations. In such a manner, they could sell the award without attribution.

[deValcourt]

Or "prosecution" ;).

[NTAT]

Commissar,

In my opinion what you saw was not that unusual. I have a nice Red Star I picked up in 1992-93 that's had the serial number polished or ground off the back. It came with a Orders Book that documents the individual winning the Order of Glory II & III class as well a Red Star.

Early on when medals/orders started showing up after the fall of the Soviet Union it was not to unusual to see orders with the numbers ground or polished off. In agreement with Devalcourt some individauls feared prosecution for selling their decorations because it was illegal for them to do so.

So to get around the problem some individuals ground the numbers off so they could sell them. In theory this foiled any attempts to have the orders tracked back to the individual.

In my case who really knows if the RS that came with the booklet belongs to the recipient or not. But for $25 USD in 1992-93 it was worth it to have the Orders Booklet.

Keeping that in mind I'm sure there's still more of the altered orders out there floating around. Hope this helps.

Gerry
NTAT

[Commissar]

Thanks guys, now I'm kicking myself for not picking it up. :(