20th Anniversary Of Chongryon Commemorative Medal.

[Will]

I have now seen four of these awards, either offered for sale or in a collection (including the one that I owned). All were cased, and none had the ribbon bar.
I'm wondering if they even actually placed a ribbon bar in the cases ?

[CtahhR]

That is going to be a difficult question to answer. I have seen a fifth one of these which was sold without a case (or ribbon bar) for $60. Considering who these medals were supposed to be awarded to it's likely we're not going to get all the details of this particular medal or photographs of anyone wearing it or the ribbon as part of a bar unless we have already, seeing how Japan is one of the most "online" nations in the world. You never know what may pop up though and it would be helpful if we knew exactly what the Japanese for this Medal was too.

[Esteban_cool]

Originally Posted by CtahhR

That is going to be a difficult question to answer. I have seen a fifth one of these which was sold without a case (or ribbon bar) for $60. Considering who these medals were supposed to be awarded to it's likely we're not going to get all the details of this particular medal or photographs of anyone wearing it or the ribbon as part of a bar unless we have already, seeing how Japan is one of the most "online" nations in the world. You never know what may pop up though and it would be helpful if we knew exactly what the Japanese for this Medal was too.

I once bid on this medal. It reached $130 or something like that. I still regret not having enough budget to have it :( If I could find it for $60 anywhere else I´d buy it in a heartbeat.

[Will]

I have not been following the online auctions for DPRK decorations for awhile but, while I was watching them, the rapid downward trend was clearly evident.
Obviously an example of the law of supply and demand at work.

[CtahhR]

I may have even been a little generous with some of the values on the list it seems... There are ALWAYS more and more coming onto the market and only a finite number of collectors. DPRK prices are spiralling downwards almost universally even though there is heavy manipulation of the market to try and keep prices up.

[Will]

Well, time will tell as they say.
But I do have a difficult time seeing the prices of the Soviet-made peices dropping down a great deal. There are a number of collectors in Russia who have been purchasing them of late, not because they are North Korean, but because they were products of the Moscow mint.
Of course, I would be very pleased to purchase a Soviet-made Order of Labor for $120. That is really the only DPRK Order that I would like to have.

[CtahhR]

I like the look of the Soviet produced Order Of Korean Labour but I was rather disappointed by the quality of my Korean produced variation. It is not as of high a standard as it's Korean made contemporary Cholima Honour Badge. I currently only have 8 Soviet made DPRK awards in the collection but I did only pay $20 for 5 of them (within the last 12 months). The quality is very noticeable in contrast to the other production runs. Although nothing beats a very early pre-Soviet production well worn screwback order in my eyes. There is something very appealing about an award that has a reverse that has been worn to a silk finish by being attached to a Soldier's chest for a "lifetime". So far I have only come across (and purchased) triple digit awards and not single or double yet, no doubt these earliest of awards will have been awarded to people "deep" within the founding of the early regime and before the Korean War (in the case of the Order of the National Flag). Even when it comes to "Hero Of The DPRK" and "Hero Of Labour" it is very difficult to find out who was awarded one never mind when, why and which. Oh how I would love to have an open archive so I could research.

[Will]

A month or two ago on Ebay a seller was offering a small lot of unrelated Japanese medals and badges. I found the listing because I was searching for a particular Japanese table medal. When I looked at the group being offered I was surprised to see that it included this DPRK decoration, cased, with the ribbon bar.

The whole lot sold for about $80.

[CtahhR]

Not too bad a price... These certainly don't seem to be as rare as thought last year. I've seen 8/9 of them for sale alone in the last year. All of them always look to be in perfect unworn condition.

[Will]

Originally Posted by CtahhR

Not too bad a price... These certainly don't seem to be as rare as thought last year. I've seen 8/9 of them for sale alone in the last year. All of them always look to be in perfect unworn condition.

Yes, well, the one that was in this group may well show up again on Ebay. The seller did not know what it was, and the buyer of the lot may have simply wanted one or more of the Japanese items. What made it interesting to me was the presence of the ribbon bar in the case, which was the first time I've seen that,

I would imagine that the ribbon bars may be worn on suits in Japan with some frequency by the recipients, but that the actual medals themselves only come out of the case for special occasions. Maybe that's why the medals always look to be in excellent condition, but the ribbon bars are missing?