You guys are probably familiar with the rare instances when a campaign medal has been observed with a similar serial number, but for others who are not, here is an article copied from Paul McDaniels site, written by Paul McDaniel :
collectors newsletter
Serial-numbered Campaign Medals
Over the last several months, the issue of serial numbers on campaign medals has appeared. Although I have only observed 2, several collectors have stated that they have seen many more.
At first, I believed the serial-numbering of campaign medals was probably done by the veteran, however, this appears to not be the case. So far, from all of the collectors I have corresponded with, only Stalingrad, Caucasus, Odessa and Sevastopol Medals have been observed with serial numbers.
One theory, given by fellow collector Andrew Kuznetsov in Kiev, Ukraine, is that the medals were serial-numbered at the unit, at division or even regimental level, and are the serial numbers that correspond to the document serial number. He has also observed that Odessa and Sevastopol Medals were hand-engraved and Caucasus and Stalingrad Medals are stamped. The lowest and highest serial numbers observed have been 479 and 39349. I have in my possession, Caucasus Medal number 034387. The example below is the reverse of a Stalingrad Medal.
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Members may want to visit Pauls site to see the image of the award he mentions. The serial number doesn't look like the Zhukov serial number, but I believe a similar reason is behind the numbering. Also alot of great reading in his collectors newsletters.
Art
