Medals "For Irreproachable Service" MOOP UzSSR.

[jefflgarrison]

Seeing the price on Alexi's site, I am wondering if $30 for the three of these was a great deal or I got suckered.

They are supposed to be genuine Uzbek MOOP "Irreproachable Service Medals".

What is your opinion. BTW, the 20 year feels much heavier than a normal "ISM" medal as if it is made of silver. It also has a nice patina.

[desantnik]

Originally Posted by jefflgarrison

Seeing the price on Alexi's site, I am wondering if $30 for the three of these was a great deal or I got suckered.

They are supposed to be genuine Uzbek MOOP "Irreproachable Service Medals".

What is your opinion. BTW, the 20 year feels much heavier than a normal "ISM" medal as if it is made of silver. It also has a nice patina.

Anyone seller who knows what these are, knows what they're worth and $30 isn't even in the ballpark.

For comparison, look at the irregularities of the letters on the reverse. Look at the "O" in "Bezuprechnoi" and below it, the "B" and "Y" in "Sluzhby". From there you'll see the irregularities in several other letters.

The Ministry of Defense medal is very common and inexpensive. Compare the lettering on one of those to yours or look in the Red Book. I hope you can get your money back.

[jefflgarrison]

I photoshopped this thing to overlay one with an older MOOP off of this site, and darn if I don't seem the difference.

Did different regions make their own medals or did one central location do all of them? Some of the ones that Art has on the main section look doubful if mine is. And really, the 20 is much heavier than others I have handled.

[desantnik]

Originally Posted by jefflgarrison

Did different regions make their own medals or did one central location do all of them? Some of the ones that Art has on the main section look doubful if mine is. And really, the 20 is much heavier than others I have handled.

I can't say for certain, but reason suggests these were centrally made at the mint and not each republic doing its own thing.

Since I can't handle it, I can't tell you about the weight. The weight difference could be due to the medal it was manufactured in - heavy on the lead (Pb) side?

[Lapa]

Jeff,

These are very well known to both collectors and dealers as being rare, and therefore valuable.
You need to post good scans of the other medals individually, front and back.
Seing your 20 years, I tend to agre with Paul that there are tell-tale defects, including on the obverse.
If silver, it should weigh about 20~21g

Marc

[jefflgarrison]

Marc,

I finally got my digital scales in the mail today.

Checking the weight of the 20year MOOP it shows 19.7 grams (medal only, no suspension).

Comparing with a regular CCCP 20year which ways 15.5 grams (medal only, no suspension).

[Kirchgoens]

I have two UZ MOOP 20-year and an MVD RSFSR 20-year. Granted, my current scale's precision is only to the nearest gram, but the two MOOPs come in at 16g and the MVD hovers between 15 and 16 grams (with the soldered silver ring still attached, but suspension removed).

Thicknesses (as measured from several points along circumference, and the last .01mm is eye-balled on my caliper):

20-yr RSFSR - 2.45mm to 2.65mm
20-yr UZ MOOP - 2.5mm to 2.72mm
20-yr UZ MOOP - 2.78mm to 2.82mm

Diameters are 32mm on all three

All three were bought at different times from different people, and all three were bought in Uzbekistan (a moderately random sampling). When I get a more precise scale, I'll pop back into this thread and post the results. Still, this would say that this type of medal is likely to come in at between 15 and 16 grams. They may not actually be made of pure silver, but instead an alloy of silver?

I dug into the Mondvor website, and on page three of Irreproachable Service Medals found the note on degree of sharpness in the points of the star on the obverse. My two 20-year UZ MOOPs (also my 20-year RSFSR MVD) both have the rounder star points (as opposed to the sharper star points). Would any other MOOP owners out there be able to comment for Jeff? Or maybe this issue is too old?

...Brian

I just got my "My Weigh" "FlipScale" that goes out to 1/100 gram in precision, and tares well and checks with a 50g weight to within .05g. With this I just checked out the four 20-year medals I have sitting here at home. I removed the suspensions, but kept on the soldered silver rings. This is what I got:

UZ MOOP 20 yr - 15.45g
UZ MOOP 20 yr - 16.11g
MVD RSFSR 20 yr - 15.18g
Military Svc 20 yr - 16.72g

Note that all four of these came from different vendors at different times spread out over two months. They all have the slightly rounder star points that you can see on the Mondvor.narod.ru website.

Given how small a gram actually is, these are all ballpark very similar in weight. Does anyone else out there have some hard figures they can give from their own collection (vs anecdotal data)?