Badge "Excellent Border Guard".

[deValcourt]

Now that I know more about what to look for, I've been going through my voluminous amount of paper items to see what's what and I cringe when I come across something like this.:(

Besides the identical handwriting of the name of the alleged border guard, there is no date on either of these. (And one of the signatures on the 2nd class is in ballpoint pen.) Moreover, the stamps are both so light that you can't make out much except "Комитет Государ...[too light, then] CCCP." I don't recall even the KGB using "disappearing ink" for seals on documents.;)

But, unless somebody had access to some pretty sophisticated equipement to make these from scratch, I do believe the blanks were Soviet production. However, I just noticed that the hanger on the 1st class badge is tilted slightly to the right, so now I'm starting to wonder...

So the question remains: How common, if at all, was this?

Phillip