Uzbekistan Independence Medal.

[deValcourt]

I saw this one from the same seller with the "bad pennies" but this appears to me to be a celebration or anniversary of September 1, 1991 of their new independence.

The face is pretty dull, but the rerverse has the current version of the state seal. Kinda cool, I think.;)

Phillip

[Esteban_cool]

Nice medal! I wonder if it had a following restrike (for catch-ups) with the latin alphabet isnscription.

[deValcourt]

I just hope this isn't a post-1991 trend to make ones like this for each former Soviet country (without the country's input) to sell to tourists in Russia or elsewhere.

That thought just occurred to me...:(

Phillip

[desantnik]

I don't understand the above comments. This is a legitimate Uzbek commemorative medal in Latin script.

[deValcourt]

I don't understand the above comments. This is a legitimate Uzbek commemorative medal in Latin script.

Commemorative - that's the word I was trying to think of yesterday. But just in case the seller's picks weren't clear, it does say "Uzbekistan - 1 September 1991" in Cyrillic script - I promise.;) I am glad that it is legitimate mainly because I have seen lots of sellers pushing pins (no pun intended) from each of the former Soviet republics of various designs with each republic's soviet seal. I just wanted to be sure this wasn't part of that trend. It is a very nice looking medal (especially the reverse).

I think Esteban was wondering if they released a second version in the native Arabic (whichever variant the official language is). "Latin" may have just been a slip.:)

Phillip

[Esteban_cool]

I understand that during the first years of Uzbek independence they still used cyrillic, and later they switched to latin. I recall seeing official uzbek documents and banknotes written in latin, headed by the name of the country "O´zbekiston".

[Kirchgoens]

In Uzbek latin script, the O' has the same sound as the Cyrillic "y" (what an English speaker would pronounce as "oo".

As for that medal above, it's just as Paul has said - real, and issued officially.

[CtahhR]

Here is another example. There is surprisingly little information on this award available. I believe it was awarded on 1st September 1992 to celebrate the first anniversary.