question on Ushakov and Order of Nevsky medals

[mmerc20]

Hello everyone,
I am new to the forum, but not new to collecting. I was recently asked to help a widow of a militaria collector help identify and potentially sell his collection acquired over 40 years. In this, was a large grouping of Russian medals. Two of them, I am sure the members here might be interested in seeing.

I know the description of this forum states that questions regarding authenticity are not allowed here, but I wonder, what is a good avenue to confirm these medals are originals. Knowing the extensivness of his collection I am confident they are original, but for selling purposes, my confidence means nothing to a potential buyer.

Below are the photos of the medals

[mmerc20]

...and the other pictures

[EricFG]

Questions about authentcity are perfectly acceptable in the 'Fake Alert' area here. Nice, big pictures pictures are always helpful and some of the experts may ask for specific areas to be focused on. But you'll get an answer; good or bad.
Well focused and unshaky images are best.

[Eryk]

May we recommend this site (it's also linked on the home page under sites of interes).

To maximize the return for the widow it may be worth spending some money to have the medals/orders professionally authenticated.

[mmerc20]

professional authentication is what I would be interested in checking out. What is an average cost for something like that? Are there any individuals you would recommend over others?

Mike

[Eryk]

We're not really spoilt for choice in this area; "Nota Bene" (who often posts on this site and is the owner of the link above) comes highly recommended. His prices are listed on the site. From my experience he is competely trustworthy - I've sent him relatively expensive awards for evaluation (he doesn't work off of pictures, and must have the award to authenticate it), and recieved them back after he's looked them over and made a judgement, quickly, well packed and in the same condition.

There are others. Though one should be careful - there are self serving authentications, where if you buy from them they'll include their own "certificate of authentication." Rather like buying a used car and the used car dealer writes you a note saying "Yes, this is a fine used car!" Not really worth much in the open market. There are also stories out there of dealers claiming an authentic award is not authentic in order to buy it from you cheap, or reduce competition in the market by taking your "inauthentic" award off the market. This is not to say that any given authenticator is less than honest. Just exercise caution.

There is a lot you can do on your own as well. Asking, as you did here, is always a good idea. But you can also look at past pics of awards posted on this and other boards and compare yours with what others have posted and talked about. There are also the excellent Mondvor and Soviet Screwbacks sites with lots of pics of authentic awards. Compare what you have with what's shown there. Lastly, check out the various dealer sites. The professionals do not knowingly sell fakes - again, compare what you have with what's for sale. You probably know all this, being a collector yourself, but just thought I'd throw the ideas out there.

[mmerc20]

I want to be sure she received what the medals are truely worth and if it takes a few bucks to ensure that, well, thats fine with me.

I know my way around German and American militaria and some Japanese, but Russian is, no pun intended, foreign to me!

Like I said, knowing the collection it came from I am confident in it's authenticity, but I want to be sure if I send it away, I will receive the same one back.

Thanks a lot for the information everyone. Hopefully soon, I will get to the bottom of the history of these medals.

On a side note, are there any records still in existance that can tie a serial number of a medal to its original receipient?

Mike

[EricFG]

The aforementioned gentleman I recommend quite highly as well.

Originally Posted by mmerc20

On a side note, are there any records still in existance that can tie a serial number of a medal to its original receipient? Mike

Yes. The same gentleman might be able to help with that as well.

[ALEX.S]

both medals looks good

[Nota Bene]

Mike,

I am Nota Bene. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail me.

Alexei