Order of Victory

[Adrian Stevenson]

Kindly sent by Dave Delich:

Relax -- this a a copy. There were only 17 original Orders awarded, with three persons receiving it twice. Brezhnev literally awarded it
to himself (an uncouth postwar move), and after his death, the order was recinded.

Anyway, the award was made of platinum, with 24 diamonds and five triangular synthetic rubies at the points of the stars. There is one round ruby set in the small star at the top of the Spassky tower. Unknown to many is the fact that only the original prototype contained genuine rubies. The manufacturers ultimately decided that it would be too expensive to manufacture the award using genuine stones, so synthetic stones were substituted instead without Stalin's knowledge.

This copy does not have a platinum frame, but a sterling one. The "diamonds" here, are, in reality, probably saphires, but the rubies are synthetic, as are the ones in the original awards. The ribbon is an authentic Order of Victory specimen.

It is likely that this copy was manufactured by the same person(s) that made the originals. Through several contacts between the USA and Russia, this piece was smuggled out of the country with endless people being paid off. This was done at a time when such awards were illegal to own.

There is one original order that was sold by the family of the original recipient, and now in private hands -- a Japanese fellow who is purported to have paid $1 Million for it. Others that may ultimately be available may be worth, tentatively, in the seven figure range.

[Auke]

A lot of unfounded statements here. I would love to see some sources.

The reason that 5-carat synthetic rubies were used was simply that the colors needed to be uniform, which precluded the use of natural rubies - no need to look for conspiracy theories here.

[harryamb2]

the copies look nice to.