Medals and badges collection

[Marcel Banziger]

That's called collecting. The more the better
And when I retire I plan to research everything. Now I just get some researched, by random. All others will all be researched when I have more time at home instead of work. It's a passion to give back a name and face to these anonymous medals and orders.

[Leaftree]

Marcel,

What kind of display case are you using? the ones with the purple/blue lining?

[Marcel Banziger]

I bought mine at IMCS militaria. Those are Rykers cases with segmented inlays. The inlays I have in 2 variations: bigger segments with blue inlay 5 rows horizontal and 4 vertical and I have with smaller segments red inlay with 5 rows horizontal and 7 rows vertical (perfect for German woundbadges or Guards badges due to their smaller size).

IMCS Militaria | Shop (currently not shown on the website but he has them in stock).

[Woolgar]

A superb collection Marcel!!!

Do you have all the Excellence Badges now?

Nick

[Marcel Banziger]

Thanks a lot Nick! Very much appreciated, especially when it comes from someone who has a superb collection of his own!

I still need 5 more Excellence badges but the variations of the different designs are almost endless. By now I've got 8 different Excellent Artillerist, 5 different Excellent Driver, 4 different Excellent Signaller and 4 different Excellent Machine Gunner badges for example (all wartime versions) and still I am missing a few variations of these. So these are great to collect but it can get frustrating with all the variations which sometimes just have tiny differences haha

[Woolgar]

Marcel, your passion, advice, dedication and incredible knowledge has always been an inspiration to to me
Thank you

Nick

[Thedutchjelle]

Very nice Marcel. I'm really fond of the way you're displaying your badges and stars/OOTPW. I must admit though, contrary to another poster here, not a big fan of the inlay-trays, it looks a bit cramped visually. What is your goal from here? More badges? Or is there still some medal or order you're looking for?
If I may ask, do you already have the Nevsky researched?

Me personally I'm on the insane quest to get atleast one of every medal (not inc every variant). I'll probably have to stop at the higher end orders if I don't want to bankrupt myself. Or maybe some of you want to join me so we can Ocean Eleven those Order of Victories from Moscow.

[Marcel Banziger]

I have to agree that it does look a bit cramped (with the Bravery medals only) but on the other hand it is a perfect way to display these dustfree and at the same time easy to store away. So it works just fine.

My Nevsky is researched yes, including photo from the original awardee: Order of Alexander Nevsky # 23501 Captain Liudas Karlovich Bradauskas

My goal is to get all different wartime versions including their variations from the Excellence badges, all variations of the wartime Guards badges and all 1st variant Campaign medals including all the sub-variations. When it comes to Red Stars and Bravery medals, I can't get enough of these (as long as they're wartime). My ultimate goal, but that is more dream than reality is to have a full set of a Cavalier of the Order of Glory. I value these higher than the HSU star (not money-wise but by achievement of the awardee). And apart from orders and medals I also collect uniforms and used fieldgear (no mint depot items). Will show a very nice well worn wartime Airforce jacket soon here on the forum when I have all the accessories complete

[kmoney10]

I am starting to collect the "excellent" badges now and would like some insight. I usually check my orders under the black light, to see that the enamel is original. Have anyone used the black light on the badges?

Any suggestions as to what literature one could read to help with collecting these badges?

[Marcel Banziger]

I don't use blacklight. Just a very good magnifying glass. It is very common to see replaced enamel on these btw and in my opinion that is no problem and doesn't influence the value too much. Remember, they were actually worn on the battlefield so the chance of getting damaged is big.

There's a few books in Russian language but I figured out that none of these cover ALL the variations. The best one imo is the following (the latest version is in colour, previous versions are in b/w):



But as said, I already discovered more variations than mentioned in the books and especially the Excellent Artillerist seems to have endless variations (I now have 10 different Artillerists so far f.e.). And when noticing these tiny differences hunting for and collecting these is like a drug