Damaged, Repair, Clean, Preserve Soviet Awards And Documents.

[Stahanov]

Thanks for the answers, guys. I tried cleaning out the medals with Eric's soap n' water, but was not happy with the results. I have a beautiful case to display the medals, and I wanted the awards to look as they did when they were issued (i.e. truly shiny). I went to a goldsmith's with a few different medals to ask his opinion about what to use for cleaning them. He sold me a can of Silvo-brand silver polish wadding and promised it wouldn't hurt the enamel or anything else.

I carefully tested the stuff on the reverse of one award, and got truly amazing results. The cleaned spot shone very brightly! I then got out a particularly grimy labor veteran medal and scrubbed the whole thing thoroughly. After I was done, the medal looked like it was minted yesterday. After working on a few enameled awards, I found that the polish doesn't damage the enamel, quite the contrary: it just makes it shine more! The tests being completed and satisfactory, I proceeded to clean my whole collection.

I'm sure many are ready to brand me a blasphemer because I clean the patina off. But I think this is the way the medals are supposed to be kept. I know if I got a medal I'd keep it clean and care for it, and I think veterans and other awardees who were proud of their awards did the same.