Medal "For Combat Merits".

[Pravda]

Yes, overall fewer BMs than CSMs were produced with the "tongue" or "shovel" ring as the Russians call it.

I don't know whether this contributes too, but many Russian collectors believe this particular suspension was awarded solely for the Pacific theater. This is only partially true. Research has shown that the majority of these were actually commissariat awardings in the late 40's through 50's either as catch-up awards for the European theater or wound awards.

Thanks for your responses! When I got home the first place I checked was the red book. (By the way, we should really have an app for it so we can have it at our finger tips when bartering for medals in FSU countries.) But,
I noticed that there has not been much discussion regarding the T2V3 CSM and was wondering if we knew any more specifics regarding this variation. I had inferred that maybe the numbers produced of both U-shaped ring variants might be similar.

It is interesting that you mention the Pacific theater connection. The example I saw that spurred my interest was a four medal suspension related to that theater. It had two U-shaped ring CSMs, VoJ, and 30 Years of the Soviet Armed Forces. Unfortunately there was no document book to go with it.

[PaulR]

I am very proud to share my newest set with you all. It is a nice late war MM medal with booklet. I am thinking that it was most likely a long service medal. I will do research on it in the future.

I hope that you like it.

What are your thoughts on this booklet? How rare/common are they? I did not see one in the red book.

[Tommy]

Here is an interesting piece.

Not the badly repaired ring and the solder that has run down over the medal, getting into some letters and numbers.





Poor thing!

Tom

[EricFG]

This is what I got in the mail today. What did you get?

I needed a real GPW CSM for my GPW display as my 1.5m CSM may or may not have been a '47 LS award.

This one popped up, in my own town no less, and I had to jump on it; a summer '43 award with original suspension and (hopefully) original ribbon.

[EricFG]

Here's some better pictures, utilizing natural light, of the medallion and the numbers.
The 3 and the 4 are strange to me. How many different fonts/styles/punches were used in numerating CSMs? Quite a few?

And for that matter was this medal always struck at the same factory for the entire course of it's exsistence or were there multiple factories, for example like the RS?

[desantnik]

Eric, you're good - don't worry. These were being punched out at the mint en masse during difficult wartime conditions.

[EricFG]

Thanks, bro!

I did a collage of all the six digit serial numbers in this thread just to see what they looked like.
Interesting?

[desantnik]

Nicely done. The s/n-in-question's number "3" could be the same as the ones you pictured in the lower left, however not fully struck (missing the upper left vertical piece).

[Lapa]

Eric,

As Paul said, everything is fine with this medal. I also believe that the 3 was punched at a slight angle, hence the upper serif not showing.

Now, coming back to your answer about manufacturing. At this stage, it is suspected that MZPP may have produced BMs and MMs in addition to the well known and documented ORS and OPW. However, no concrete proof has been found yet.

Marc

[EricFG]

Thank you, Marc, as always.

I wasn't concerned with authenticity as I did my homework before purchasing, I was just observing the differences in the number's font. In the course of doing my homework I noticed those differences and they intrigued me. So then I thought that if there were different fonts they might be explained by there being different factories (using physically different punches).

Seperately, MZPP possibly manufacured medals as well as what, Monetny Dvor?

Also, like my previous collage I found some similar fonts in the 'Fake CSM?' thread. I only used the serial numbers that were deemed not fake to fit my theory .

It's also funny to note that when I went through that thread I found two instances when two same serial numbers came up twice in that thread at seprate times and from different posters. I guess Soviet medals get "flipped" a lot more often then I thought.

So here is the collage from the Fake? thread with similar number fonts. The 2, 3, 5 and 6 are all alike, IMO. Couldn't find a 4 however.