02-11-2008, 03:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 09-17-2015, 07:22 PM by Bill Garvy.)
Sometime in 2004, can't recall exactly, but I became enamored with the red hat stars and their seemingly infinite variety. One of my collector friends, Richie C., sent me one, and from that point on I was hooked. From there, the transition to Orders of the Red Star, Orders of Glory, Orders of Lenin, was almost effortless. Like other collectors I started with German militaria, mostly Iron Crosses, 1914 and 1939 issues pieces, but compared to the Russian pieces that can be historically documented, the German pieces seem lifeless. Besides, the reproductions were getting better and better, and the prices on authentic pieces more and more expensive and unobtainable, which seems to now be the case with a great many of the Russian pieces we all love to collect, research and discuss.
