06-02-2002, 03:01 AM
Shane-
I've got several of the AVERS books, going as far back as the 'original' AVERS from 1993, and all of them have different stuff in them. For example, AVERS 5 is made to be a 'handbook' to carry to shows and markets, AVERS 1 has a lot larger pictures, more descriptions and even a few award documents.
It all depends on what you want to use the books for... I use them to identify Soviet badges that I get with groups, and that's about it. For that, almost any of them are good, though over time, more badges made it into the later ones. Other versions of AVERS have badges from the Republics and such.
My answer to your question doesn't help you much, but here it is: if you can find them at reasonable prices, buy what you find. It doesn't hurt to have more reference books than you use... It's the lack of references that causes folks to trip up from time to time.
Hope that helped...
--Dave
I've got several of the AVERS books, going as far back as the 'original' AVERS from 1993, and all of them have different stuff in them. For example, AVERS 5 is made to be a 'handbook' to carry to shows and markets, AVERS 1 has a lot larger pictures, more descriptions and even a few award documents.
It all depends on what you want to use the books for... I use them to identify Soviet badges that I get with groups, and that's about it. For that, almost any of them are good, though over time, more badges made it into the later ones. Other versions of AVERS have badges from the Republics and such.
My answer to your question doesn't help you much, but here it is: if you can find them at reasonable prices, buy what you find. It doesn't hurt to have more reference books than you use... It's the lack of references that causes folks to trip up from time to time.
Hope that helped...
--Dave
