General University Graduate Badges.

[deValcourt]

Well not literally, but I've had this Moscow State University badge since 1993 and never really looked at carefully until I got my third pre-WWII university badge with only 10 ribbons on the seal. Two of the things the old solid silver badges have in common are the 3 rivets on the reverse and the Moscow Mint screw nut. This badge had these as well, so I started to look more closely at it and then finally started counting the ribbons on the seal. Sure enough, it's 16. The only reason I know it is from MSU is because it belonged to the father of a friend I have in Moscow. The man had died a few years before I met his family at a birthday party for me and his widow gave me this badge because she heard I was starting to collect such things. I started to decline such a personal gift, but my friend stopped me - and if you how Russians are about gift giving, then you know why I couldn't refuse.;)

This sort of thing has happened twice today. See: http://www.soviet-awards.com/forum/sovie...rests.html

First, a pre-war one for comparison and after the reverse of both.

Phillip