People's Commissariat Of The Lines Of Communication Belt Buckle

[CtahhR]

Here's the reverse. A very poor picture but as I've said no camera and scanner likes 2D. No maker marks etc.... The bar is not rusty (as it doesn't seem ferrous) just dirty.

If someone wants to buy me a camera I'd be able to take oceans of photos.

[CtahhR]

The mystery continues? Is there a consensus that this is a pre-GPW Soviet buckle at least? The hammer looks to be of a different shape to other Railway insignia I've seen. Could it be an early Soviet Railway buckle? Does anyone out there know of any images of anything similar? Does anyone have an images of Imperial Railway insignia to compare? I'd really like to know just what this buckle is supposed to be.

[Lapa]

Where is Vvadim when you need him ;)

Marc

[Jeffrey Meffert]

Back looks like an imperial belt buckle I had once. Not sure if the hammer & wrench was imperial. A lot of badges and emblems then had flowery script rather than simply identifiable icons

[vvadim]

This is NKPS/MPS 1943 – 1955 belt buckle.
P.S. Mankind invented e-mail and some forum members aware of it.

[CtahhR]

Excellent! Thank you very much for the information! By the feel of it is is probably an early - war time construction, as it is rather crude - even for a communist item. I'll have to do some reading up on this now!

[CtahhR]

I found this picture of a buckle which is similar but not the same to the one I have. This is described as "Пряжка Бляха НКПС СССР 1943-1955 г." but my buckle has a different hammer and is not curved (unlike this one), is there any chance that the flat variation of the buckle with the move V shaped hammer pre-dates 1943?

[CtahhR]

Here are photos of another Buckle I've found. This one is also different. This is also curved with the less V shaped hammer and the clips on the reverse are different and on this variation the insignia is part of the construction whereas on the buckle here the insignia is affixed to the buckle. So far I've not found any (quality) pictures of anyone wearing any of this buckle.

[CtahhR]

Here's an updated image if anyone can throw any additional light on it.

Can anyone speculate how much I should and should not have paid for this?

[EricFG]

Just uninformed speculation but in it's condition I'd guess it's value would as a curio. <$25?
Value is what someone is willing to pay for it, of course you know that.
Then again there may be a Russian railway-related belt buckle collector out there, somewhere, who's been searching for this one last buckle and is willing to pay undreamt-of gobs of currency to fill a gaping hole in his collection. Your task, should you accept it, is to find that man and make a mutually agreeable arrangement. ;)