Victory.

[Christophe]

Ed,

I have never seen one of Montgomery with the Order of Victory in wear, except the one I posted.

Cheers.

Ch.

[Bogdan]

Didn't I read somewhere either on the forum or elsewhere that (with all respect to both Eisenhower and the USSR) Eisenhower felt that his OV had fake diamonds in it? There was something about him showing it to a friend and he told the friend that he took it to a jeweler who said that the diamonds in it were not real. Has anybody else heard or read this before?

[Christophe]

Here, on this website : http://www.mirnagrad.ru

You can see Monty's order books :thumbsup :

* Order of Victory:
Мир наград. Сайт российских коллекционеров.

* Suvorov 1st class:
Мир наград. Сайт российских коллекционеров.

Order of Victory : interesting to notice that it confirms that no SN is indicated.
Suvorov 1st Class : no SN (SN#133) indicated.

Cheers.

Ch.

[Bundtrock]

I have done some beginner research, 20 of these were issued, last to Chairman Brezhnev in 1978, one is in private hands today.

My question is this, I have found copies for sale on eBay, price range $199 or best offer to $300, is this the usual range for a copy of this award?

TYIA for your help. :)

[matteti]

Hi Bundtrock,
Since you talk about copies, there is a huge variety and sprectrum of quality. Some don't look at all like the genuine order, while some are more similar. So it's very difficult to give an estimate of what a copy is worth. My own experience is that 99% of the copies are not very convincing and would be a total waste of money even as a filer for such a rare award. If you check on the well known auction site at the moment for a seller from Germany who is selling copies of Orders of Victory for a while, you will see they sell between 60-150$ approximately. However, if you compare their look with Eisenhower's order as shown on the forum (http://soviet-awards.com/order_pics/deta...orydet.jpg), you will see the color is not even close and the "diamonds" are not as big and don't cover the background "silver" as much, the Kremlin looks like made of plastic, etc..

Personally, I don't see the value of this. However, if it was a museum copy made of real Rubies and Diamonds, then it would be a different story! ;)

[Jeffrey Meffert]

"Personally, I don't see the value of this. However, if it was a museum copy made of real Rubies and Diamonds, then it would be a different story!" ;)[/QUOTE]

Sometimes you just really need an order of glory to finish off a uniform, hence the value
PS: The only genuine soviet items are the OPW and the parade mount of 4 medals on the second tier. The foriegn orders on the bottom row are not what MSU Meretskov won, but I could never find reasonable copies of the norwegian orders and substituted some equally fancey yugosloavian pieces. I've since replaced the OPW with a replica of his actual order

[GabrielMk3]

What Norwegian orders did he receive? I might take a look around...

[marsino]

PS: The only genuine soviet items are the OPW and the parade mount of 4 medals on the second tier. The foriegn orders on the bottom row are not what MSU Meretskov won, but I could never find reasonable copies of the norwegian orders and substituted some equally fancey yugosloavian pieces. I've since replaced the OPW with a replica of his actual order

Jeffrey, why Meretskov has received two Orders Yugoslavians?

Герой Советского Союза Мерецков Кирилл Афанасьевич :: Герои страны

Awarded seven Orders of Lenin (01/03/1937, 21/03/1940, 02/11/1944, 21/02/1945, 06/06/1947, 06/06/1957, 06/06/1967), the Order "Victory" (8.09 .1945 - № 18), the Order of the October Revolution (02/22/1968), four Orders of the Red Banner (22/02/1928, 03/02/1938, 11/03/1944, 11/06/1947), two Orders of Suvorov 1st class (28.01.1943 - № 14, 21.02.1944 - № 105), the Order of Kutuzov, 1st degree (29.06.1944 - № 287), a weapon with the Honorary Golden State Emblem of the USSR (02/22/1968), medals, and foreign awards: Grand Cross of the Order St. Olaf (Norway, 1945), the Order of the Legion of Honour Commander degree (USA, 1946), the Order of the State Banner of the level 1 (Korea, 1948), the Order of the Sun Siyaschego level 1 (China, 1946), the Medal "For Victory over Japan "(MNR, 1946), medal" for the liberation of Korea "(North Korea, 1948).

[CtahhR]

I have often dabbled with the idea (and only the idea) of purchasing one of the ever available Order "Victory" replicas, fakes, copies or whatever else you'd like to call it. There is the fact that it is of outstanding beauty and although I have not yet written off ever having a real one in the collection the reality of the fact is that that's not very likely.

The thought process is a rather conflicted and confused one but thoughts arise such as "what would I do with it?", "will the quality be any good?" and the overriding thought is always "why spend money on a fake when it can be spent on something real?". That for me is always the last thought rendering the rest of the entire "oh that looks nice" etc situation moot.

Right now I don't think I'm selfish enough to buy a copy of this order just to look at, not when I can look at pictures of the real thing for free although I may be missing a point here.

[Bundtrock]

I think this one is just absolutely BEAUTIFUL, I am in the process of acquiring orders / medals / badges that are affordable to me now, with this one though, there are only 20 in existence, one is in private hands, I think it is just pretty much impossible to ever have a real one, so I would consider a reproduction at some point, just to have and look at, I THINK.

I am growing and developing, my attitude may change over time though.