National Flag Order 3rd Class.

[CtahhR]

The clusters of serial numbers to Types of these awards is rather hit and miss in places. The pre-Soviet Screwback Types were in a batch from 1->1000. Many of these will have no doubt been awarded before the Korean War (or at least in the first few weeks of the war). With the tide turning in 1951 Korean production (or at least the stockpile of the first Types) were unavailable and the Soviet Union stepped in to produced DPRK Awards. Soviet produced awards range in serial from <2000 to <100000 but only in batches. The first batch of Soviet produced awards will have most likely been awarded to Korean forces, many of these will have been worn "at the front" (serial range around <2000 to >22000). There are also the "Czechoslovak" produced screwbacks that I have observed in the serial ranges >24000 to >35000. After c36000 horizontal pinbacks are more normally seen. The small batches of >36000 Soviet produced awards will have been produced for forces of allied nations (Soviet Union, Bulgaria etc.) as they were more expensive to produce. Horizontal pinbacks do however turn up with exceptionally low serial numbers (<4000) but I would not be surprised if pinback examples numbered <35000 were replacements for those "lost" by Korean recipients.

I'll try and summarise this hypothesis as simply as possible.

"Czechoslovakian"/Korean Screwbacks serial numbered<1500 - Possibly pre-war award/stock.
Soviet Screwbacks serial numbered <35000 - Original "wartime" awards to any nation's forces (most likely Korean).
"Czechoslovakian" Screwbacks serial numbered <36000 "wartime" awards, most likely to Korean forces.
Soviet Screwbacks serial numbered >36000 - Late/postwar awards to "Allies".
Horizontal Pinbacks serial numbered <35000 - Postwar replacements for Korean forces.
Horiztonal Pinbacks serial numbered >36000 - Late/postwar awards to Korean forces.

As I've said before the Soviet produced award serial numbered <2000 is one of the most lovingly worn items I've ever come across. Most likely a fairly early war award to a Korean. Then there are Soviet produced awards in the 90000's that were awarded to Bulgarians.


Lowest "non Soviet" screwback in the collection is <240 and highest >35000.
Lowest "Soviet" screwback is <2000 and highest >91000.
Lowest Horizontal pinback is <4000 and highest <100000
Lowest "Rivet" Vertical pinback <ㄴ9000 and highest >70000
Lowest "non-Rivet" Vertical pinback >ㄴ72000 (and they numbered them for around 650000 pieces using different prefix letters each c100000)


There are just so, so, so many of these out there being produced under so many different circumstances that it is difficult to really focus on but to date I have recorded 13 completely different Types with up to 14 Variations per Type - I've not finished yet. I'm sure there are more out there and more in the future.

If anyone likes early, Pre-Soviet production, serial numbered DPRK awards - Start at the start!