Red Star.

[ericlida]

The order is back for sale on eBay

[jefflgarrison]

I guess another unsatisfied seller will blame us for ruining his sale!

[ericlida]

I guess another unsatisfied seller will blame us for ruining his sale!

If the seller reads this forum, knows that the order is fake, and continues to sell the order as original - I am OK with him being unsatisfied.
Also, the information is important for new collectors, members of this Forum. We are not talking about buying fake for $5-10 or even $50.00.
It can be couple thousends dollars.
BTW, my previous thread was an advertising for the seller: The Order is back on eBay!!! ;)
Eric

[Kirchgoens]

That damage issue is one I haven't been able to get my mind around yet. How much does it really affect the collector value of a piece (set aside the silver value for a moment)? I recently passed on an OPW1 with one star point broken, but I do have several OPW2's with that sort of damage (including one I accidently dropped!!! :( ).

As one example of damage combined with a good story, I have an ORB from '45 that was awarded to an Uzbek sergeant just outside Berlin in April. He was recommended for the Order of Lenin by his HSU division commander, but was downgraded by his HSU corps commander. For a sergeant to be recommended for the OL is fairly high. This award has repaired enamel.

What about an ORS with a broken point that was awarded to a hero with a superb write-up? Maybe an OG3 with a deep scratch or a bent point that occured long after the combat as it survived four to six decades of hard life in the USSR?

As an aside, I'm beginning to realize that the OPW must be about the most breakage-prone of the awards with it's thin enamel and overall design, whereas the ORS seems to be fairly resistant with its thickness and the OG3 with its tight enamel design. The wartime BMs and CSMs have that lacquer coloring that seems to always be broken down.

I bet there are at least two schools of collecting that cover these issues: the lovers of the story/history, and the lovers of the piece. What do you guys think about this ORS topic that might be more of a general discussion?

...Brian

[jefflgarrison]

Guys, I won this medal on the hunch that the number was not as it was stated in the description.

Redmedals sold it as #2.758.453

However, seeing the funky writing of the number, I am hoping that it is 2.158.453, which would make it a MzPP star. Do others agree with me?

I got it for a fair price seeing that others with MZPP stated in the description are being bid so high. Guess I started a fad.

[Auke]

I think you're right, but we'll know for sure when you receive it :)

Two weeks ago I also won an MZPP Red Star for a fair price on our favorite auction site. As long as MZPP is not in the title or description you can sometimes find them for fair prices by simply checking all the Red Star auctions.

You're not the only one who simply loves MZPP Red Stars :D

[ericlida]

Jeff
I think it is MZPP not only because of number range.
The location of Mint Mark makes the order made at MZPP
Eric

[Kirchgoens]

I can't tell much from the photo, but what you say makes sense. Today I picked up another MZPP (2,193,141), and two of those "1's" might be mistaken for "7's" if you didn't know the style.

...Brian

[EricFG]

Did MZPP manufacture a distinctive screw plate as well? Jeff's latest seems, while not one of a kind, a bit different than usual.

[Kirchgoens]

I think there are too many types of the basic ORS/OPW 33mm screwplates to really count, and maybe short of finding an original sterling silver screwplate, I don't think there is much way of knowing if a screwplate actually originally came with the award. Maybe it's a large version of the clutchbacks we used on US badges and ribbon racks: I always kept a couple extras because I would surely lose a couple here and there. :rolleyes:

I believe that many of the wartime ones were originally silver (when did they stop making them in silver?), but those seem to have been the first casualty when it came time to make a bit of bread money. I have a bag of more than 100 non-silver 33mm screwplates I picked up a couple months ago from a guy in Ferghana Valley. None are silver; some look old enough to be close to wartime; others probably came from the recent big meltings of '85 OPWs for jewelry silver (it is currently happening to many medals and some orders at a rate that would scare you). There are so many little differences in them, but they all basically the same standard screwback. There are also seem to be a couple small variations in hole diameter or thread size, and I've seen the same small variations in the screwposts of ORS's: some "identical" screwplates work on some, but not on others. If you are not careful, you run the risk of damaging the threading. I've found a couple stars in that condition, probably from using a slightly wrong (but visually correct) screwplate.

...Brian