Red Banner.

[Alfred]

Great condition.

[desantnik]

I've had this for over a decade and recently pulled it out of deep storage. Two things are most interesting.

A. The "N2" at the top. Is this official? If so, does it indicate a "dublikat" or a "#2" awarding?

B. The serial number below has been buffed and reapplied in an official manner by a steady hand and I tried to capture the faint guide line below. I believe this to be an officially done reissue or "dublikat."

Were either A or B done officially? The confident engraving style and buffing to me point to official issue.

Finally, to date it has proven unresearchable, perhaps indicating it belonged to someone important or in the security organs, perhaps oppressed and rehabilitated?

[ph3s]

I would agree with you

B. The serial number below has been buffed and reapplied in an official manner by a steady hand and I tried to capture the faint guide line below

My guess would be, as we all know there was always lack of RB2, RB3 etc, lots of people received usual first RD for second , third and even forth award. May be on of those cases? ready numbered RB got renumbers to be given to someone as second award probably.

[CtahhR]

Did you attempt to research this as a RB1 or RB2? If you didn't find it as one you may find it as the other. A very nice piece never-the-less!

[desantnik]

Did you attempt to research this as a RB1 or RB2? If you didn't find it as one you may find it as the other. A very nice piece never-the-less!

If I remember, only as a RB1. Good idea, I might try the second awarding option. If it is a second awarding, the first one must either be a Republican Red Banner or an even earlier CCCP awarding.

[deValcourt]

It is a truly interesting and unusual piece - though I doubt from the way the work was done on it, a unique one (just incredibly scarce). As ph3s pointed out, the second or subsequent awardings of ORBs were done most often without the numbers 2, 3, etc. early on and I'm sure during wartime. It makes perfect sense to me at least, that this was a second awarding and the mint simply reapplied the necessary serial number and the "N 2" in such a way that it could not be missed by the owner. It is possible that the mint could have "punched in" a "2" as I've seen done, but circumstances may have been such that the option was not available. I also sgree with the idea of researching it as a second award possibly proving more fruitful.

Really amazing, regardless.:thumbsup

Phillip

[Lapa]

Paul,

Let's look at the order itself, and what it can and connot be:
. the base order is a KMD manufacture of 1944
. ORB2 SN 26390 corresponds to a 1954 MMD manufacture
So, IMHO, this cannot be a second award for the simple reason that it would have been awarded after 1954, when the standard ORB type was already the oval one.
I believe that, since you've had this order for several year, we are faced with one of those early post-1991 concoctions; at the time, very little information was available, we knew that repeat awards of the ORB happened, but not necessarily in which form.
A local "entrepreneur" came up with a simple way to enhance the value of simple, regular ORBs (which, at the time, did not cost more that $15~20) by upgrading it to a second (and possibly third, fourth, etc) award, worth a good $100 then; all that was needed was some engraving skills, something not beyond the means of a simple jeweller for instance.
In other terms, (and to be blunt...) I don't believe for a second that this has anything to do with mint production (apart from the base order, that is :D).

Marc

[Lapa]

It is a truly interesting and unusual piece - though I doubt from the way the work was done on it, a unique one (just incredibly scarce). As ph3s pointed out, the second or subsequent awardings of ORBs were done most often without the numbers 2, 3, etc. early on and I'm sure during wartime. It makes perfect sense to me at least, that this was a second awarding and the mint simply reapplied the necessary serial number and the "N 2" in such a way that it could not be missed by the owner. It is possible that the mint could have "punched in" a "2" as I've seen done, but circumstances may have been such that the option was not available. I also sgree with the idea of researching it as a second award possibly proving more fruitful...

And, point in case, this is exactly the type of reasoning that the faker was expecting to get from his "unsuspecting" customers :laff

Marc

PS: nothing personal here, Phil ;)

[desantnik]

What is your appraisal of the serial number - official or unofficial?

[Lapa]

Paul,

From what I wrote above, I believe it is pretty clear that I think it to be of Garage Mint origin.

Marc