01-14-2017, 10:00 PM (This post was last modified: 01-14-2017, 11:18 PM by Pravda.)
Paul, this is what I have for you. It came from the Vladimir Obl. Military District and says its for a member of the armed forces. I have not found any additional data regarding the awarding.
Any thoughts on the serial number, the writing seemed to have been written with a wider tip than earlier versions, but seems closer in width to the original Order of Courage photo in this thread. I believe it to be authentic.
Searching for additional information is disheartening. I can't find a Decree #55 of 17-01-2000 (Let alone one for Chernobyl) and Anotolij Valentinovich Gramotov also completely managed to keep his name out of phone books/social media/obituaries/etc.
Russian Federation state awards are open to research but that is an additional expense to factor in.
Personally I would only purchase one of these with far superior images, supporting evidence and a dealer I had known for a long time.
And of course, the reverse. I noticed that on this version, there is the more oval shaped Moscow Mint Mark as well as a line that does not extend below the "N".