Medal "Veteran Of The Armed Forces Of The U.S.S.R.".

[Art]

This is from Mahdi's collection..

[Tal Inbar]

I am still convinced that the gold plated medals are not standart issue, and MAYBE top generals etc. got them - but the process was a "private venture" of some kind (funded by the military, perhaps?). I want to see the UKAZ regarding the gold plated medal. If there isn't one, I will continue to think about this variation as a black (gold...) operation of the army and mint.

However, on ebay there is a lot of 14 medals,for $50.00, and among them - surprise, surprise! - is this medal:

[Art]

Tal,

That one doesn't have the nice glow that gold has. It looks like the shiny brass as a result of the die process.

[ibaya]

Here is a gold version, with a regular medal next to it for comparison.

Does anyone think the enamel on the gold version was applied before or after the wash? The brightness of the star on the gold version seems a little brighter ...

[Nota Bene]

Ibaya,

On the two examples I have seen enamel was applied after the gold, and you can see that the gold gives it a "pinkish" color. Besides doing it the other way around would not be a very efficient manufacturing process.

BTW, I am not convinced that it is actually gold, could it be something else?

Alexei

[ibaya]

Well, a gold wash uses actual gold, but the thickness of the coating is on the order of about 5 millionths of an inch thick, and doesn't involve an electrical process like electroplating. If they bother to apply gold wash to other medals, why not this one, especially if it's a limited batch?

And at that thickness, the gold layer can be transparent, which is why gold washed don't have the same rich yellow as plated or high content gold.

[Ed Maier]

I have seen in person the medals Ibaya is presenting on the forum. I must say that I have never seen the documents which authorize this medal, but his is done at such a high standard of construction that I do not doubt that it is real. It is not like the "typical" fake or fantasy piece that you see. It looks like an official piece.

Once again, I do not know if they exist or not, but if they do, I have never seen a more offical looking piece then Ibaya's.

Just me opinion,
Ed

[Nota Bene]

Gentlemen,

I haven't seen any proof of their existence either. Here's the one I have in stock (ugly scan :(), it looks like a mint production, and has very minor wear traces. I believe it is genuine.


Ibaya,

Thanks for the information! I thought it might be something like yellow aluminum alloy, like pins. Or does it also have real gold? Pardon the ignorance. :)

Alexei

[ibaya]

Despite your opinion of the scan, it looks like a beautiful example!

Yep, gold wash is certainly an economical way to a little gold go a looong way :)

An obvious way to see if it's plating or wash is to scratch it ... a pretty destructive way to test! That's why some gold orders, such as Orders of Lenin and the Order of the Great Patriotic War 1st Class, have scratches on them; they scratch deep enough to get through any plating, then apply acid to look for a reaction. Obviously, If the item is made of a yellow alloy, you wouldn't see any difference inside the scratch from the outside. You'd just apply the acid without the scratch, and look for a reaction.

There are portable testers that are used to determine if an item is gold or gold-plated by testing the conductivity, but they're not casual purchase items!

[Eugene]

I’m very skeptical about goldplated Soviet Army veteran medal/ If they are real, who was awarded? I’ve heard a couple versions. First one was they were given to high rank officers mostly to generals. I saw a couple full groups. One belonged to three star general and another of two stars general. Both groups had a regular medal. Another version was that goldplated medal was awarded to those officers who served in Moscow Army headquarters. Again no regulation regarding gold plated medal was discovered so far.
More likely gold plating medals were custom made even so some of them mint like quality.