Soviet Award Booklets & Medals

[postmanhell]

I'm curious to know peoples opinions on why many soviet awards get seperatred from their award booklets. Medals are obviously very collectable and, as I have personally proved, produced interesting research results. Are the booklets less interesting than the medals ?

[Bill Garvy]

Greed, and no, I must respectfully disagree. The documents are as collectible and compelling as the medals themselves inasmuch as both tell a story.

[postmanhell]

Thanks for responding Bill. I'm trying to start a collection of award booklets, and I agree with you that they equally tell an important story. They give me a great starting point for researching the individual

[Auke]

Documents are indeed quite collectible, but there are two main reasons why many groups / sets have been split:

- Groups usually sell for less than the cumulative value of their parts, probably mainly because many medal collectors don't collect paperwork, and because groups, the larger ones in particular, always contain parts that collectors are less interested in. Every collector has his specialties and niches. I have sold many groups over the years and I could have made a lot more money if I had split those groups.

- Award recipients were eligible for benefits and privileges. The recipients needed their award documents to claim their benefits; the medals themselves were unnecessary and were often sold when times were tough.

[postmanhell]

Great points made there Auke! I can now see why these things happen. Grateful for your reply. Cheers!