02-06-2007, 01:59 PM
There is at least one person on the forum who was able to hold a Victory in his hand and thoroughly inspect it, so he can probably answer that better. I have only seen them in cases, and they appear to be real - there would be no point in making these out of synthetic stones when so few of them were being produced and the caliber of people who they were being awarded to were nothing short of legendary for the day.
As far as Monty's pinback one, I have to think that Lapa is right - it was probably converted to pinback at a later time. Between the British, French and Americans, well over 1000 screwback awards were given out and I think it unlikely that the Soviets would convert one to pinback for Monty because he couldn't figure out how to use a screwback.
All of the foreigners who received screwback awards that I talked to all mentioned that they didn't wear them later because they would destroy whatever uniform they were worn on, so it would make absolute sense to convert one to pinback. A US Major General who received the Suvorov 2nd converted his into clutchback after the war, and the photo of that is here on the forum.
Hope that helps! :thumbsup
Dave
As far as Monty's pinback one, I have to think that Lapa is right - it was probably converted to pinback at a later time. Between the British, French and Americans, well over 1000 screwback awards were given out and I think it unlikely that the Soviets would convert one to pinback for Monty because he couldn't figure out how to use a screwback.
All of the foreigners who received screwback awards that I talked to all mentioned that they didn't wear them later because they would destroy whatever uniform they were worn on, so it would make absolute sense to convert one to pinback. A US Major General who received the Suvorov 2nd converted his into clutchback after the war, and the photo of that is here on the forum. Hope that helps! :thumbsup
Dave
