05-02-2010, 07:21 AM
Here's a scary thing - not just for this medal, but for others as well. We all know that there are some really good fakes out there of the Guarding the State Border Medal and the Protecting Public Order Medal. But this is the first time I've seen one this close to the real thing. I had a very ugly space-filler that cost me about $10. Then I was lucky enough to get the real thing (on display here): http://www.soviet-awards.com/forum/sovie...ds-80.html
Since the real one in the display was not in my very large framed general display anymore, and I noticed a "restrike" for $20, I bought it as a better looking space filler. I got it yesterday and it was so clean that I had to break out the authentic one to look for differences. The upshot of all this is that I only noticed a few "watermarks" missing and they could only be seen very up-close or magnified.
What worries me here is that when replicas, restrikes and just plain fakes get this good, someone less scrupulous might try to turn around and sell it as authentic and probably get way more than $20 for it.:mad:
The first one pictured is just the obverse of the first really bad fake. Then the restrike, and finally the real thing.
Phillip
Since the real one in the display was not in my very large framed general display anymore, and I noticed a "restrike" for $20, I bought it as a better looking space filler. I got it yesterday and it was so clean that I had to break out the authentic one to look for differences. The upshot of all this is that I only noticed a few "watermarks" missing and they could only be seen very up-close or magnified.
What worries me here is that when replicas, restrikes and just plain fakes get this good, someone less scrupulous might try to turn around and sell it as authentic and probably get way more than $20 for it.:mad:
The first one pictured is just the obverse of the first really bad fake. Then the restrike, and finally the real thing.
Phillip
Phillip
