Bravery Medal - with & without tongue and serial number ranges...

[Kirchgoens]

It seems there still widely persists in the former Soviet Union the probable misconception that the "tongue" version of the Bravery Medal was awarded for actions in the Far East against Japan (and thus the premium price for them out there). I am guessing that several of you have research that shows this to be incorrect (and I hope to also have the same some day if my ordered research ever comes through).

To further back up the idea that the tongue gives no indication of award location is a serial number trend showing up in my own collection of BMs. I'm now beginning to think that the awards, although made in two slightly different ways (ring vs. tongue), were probably serial numbered in mixed batches.

This is what I found in my collection:

3,399,164 T2V1 - standard ring
3,399,584 T2V2 - tongue ring

3,606,471 T2V1 - standard ring
3,606,670 T2V2 - tongue ring
3,606,763 T2V1 - standard ring

I have other T2V2 pieces, but these above are striking because of the VERY close numbers among the two versions.

These high number ranges also show up in fairly large numbers in Uzbekistan, going back to another theory that these were immediate post-war blocks (catch-up awards?) given out geographically from local units or local voenkomats. There are a couple other threads out there talking about this theory, so I won't go into it here other than I've definitely got tight blocks that I've picked up in the same general area in markets.