Red Star.

[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