02-02-2004, 10:19 AM
Fellow collectors,
Back in the summer of 1991, I went to a fleamarket in Wiesbaden, Germany and saw many vendors selling millitaria items from former Soviet Blocks...much much happiness
. Almost all the vendors would have a banner with tiny soviet plastic/alluminum/brass badges attached. It was fairly cheap between 10-50 pfennig. I started to collect Lenin badges. After a few hundred, I couldn't keep track of which one I have and which one I don't so I started to collect Soviet medals/orders/and badges. There were many fleamarkets, I concentrated mostly in the Frankfurt/Mainz/Wiesbaden area.
As early as 1993, I remembered seeing fakes medals and badges at the flea markets...good quality fakes. A Polish vendor/friend told me that the fakes were coming out of Russia. It was somewhat humorous to see every vendors selling hard to find badges/medals/orders as if they all received the fakes at a central distribution point at the border crossing. One guy had a box with over 20 medal of the 20th Anniversary of the Red Army; just the medals no pentagonal hangers. I've stood and watched as my Polish vendor sold an Order of Alexander Nevsky w/doc to a German. As soon as the German walked away, he pulled another Nevsky w/doc out of a plastic bag and placed it on his table for the next "sucker". BTW, nothing against the Polish people, everyone Russian/Germans/American were buying/selling fakes either out of ignorance or greed. Everyone was trying to make a buck/DM, selling everything they can drag down to the fleamarkets. Sadly, by the time I left Germany in 1997, the fleamarkets in Germany were full of fake soviet militaria.
Now back in Germany again, one can hardly find any russian militaria at the fleamarket. It had simply dried up...much much sadness.
Dat Nguyen
Back in the summer of 1991, I went to a fleamarket in Wiesbaden, Germany and saw many vendors selling millitaria items from former Soviet Blocks...much much happiness
. Almost all the vendors would have a banner with tiny soviet plastic/alluminum/brass badges attached. It was fairly cheap between 10-50 pfennig. I started to collect Lenin badges. After a few hundred, I couldn't keep track of which one I have and which one I don't so I started to collect Soviet medals/orders/and badges. There were many fleamarkets, I concentrated mostly in the Frankfurt/Mainz/Wiesbaden area.As early as 1993, I remembered seeing fakes medals and badges at the flea markets...good quality fakes. A Polish vendor/friend told me that the fakes were coming out of Russia. It was somewhat humorous to see every vendors selling hard to find badges/medals/orders as if they all received the fakes at a central distribution point at the border crossing. One guy had a box with over 20 medal of the 20th Anniversary of the Red Army; just the medals no pentagonal hangers. I've stood and watched as my Polish vendor sold an Order of Alexander Nevsky w/doc to a German. As soon as the German walked away, he pulled another Nevsky w/doc out of a plastic bag and placed it on his table for the next "sucker". BTW, nothing against the Polish people, everyone Russian/Germans/American were buying/selling fakes either out of ignorance or greed. Everyone was trying to make a buck/DM, selling everything they can drag down to the fleamarkets. Sadly, by the time I left Germany in 1997, the fleamarkets in Germany were full of fake soviet militaria.
Now back in Germany again, one can hardly find any russian militaria at the fleamarket. It had simply dried up...much much sadness.
Dat Nguyen
