Hi everyone. What is your opinion on this medal? Is it original Or is it Fake?
Thank you
WW2 USSR Medal for Defence of Sevastopol. Original or Fake.
Hi everyone. What is your opinion on this medal? Is it original Or is it Fake?
Thank you
Spikenail,
My opinion... I'd feel comfortable with it. See what others have to say.
Gerry C.
From the Now Sunny High Plains of the Midwest U.S.A.
There are features that I like and that I don't like. Can you post a better, clearer shot from the connecting ring please?
Thank you for your attention. Here are some more pictures over the connecting ring, the only i got so far. I consider to buy this one for my collection, so the medal is not on my hands. Hopefully pictures are good enough. Could you explain a bit more in details what you like what you dont. Thanx
At first glance it all looks good, also the connecting ring (thanks for additional pics), though I noticed that the medal is not really a nice circle which is especially visible at the raised edge at the 3 o'clock position. Also the chinstrap from the helmet has a distinct buckle low on the strap. I have not seen that on any of the Sevastopol medals, both the "raised edge" and "no edge" variations. Perhaps that is not an issue at all but from all the medals I have seen none of them had this. Just another observation while typing this, the star just below the connecting ring looks odd and the points are not equal. The same goes for the blocks/beans/whatever they are called left and right of this star/ after the Y and before the C. On all medals I have seen left and right block are equal in size and here there's a distinct difference in width.
Here's one of my "Raised edge" medals:
Spikenail,
Marcel raises some good questions and concerns. Taking those into consideration I know there's variations of this medal. Although I'm not a collector of variations I understand there might be variations A, B, C etc (Just made up the variation letters as an example). I guess all manufactured by different vendors at various points in time. I did take the opportunity to search the Internet and found at least two variations of the same medal. Maybe this is the case of the medal being discussed?? It's a variation??
For me it has good detail and time worn scars and marks. And me... I like the flat spot on the right side of the medal - face up. Flat spot might have been caused by wear, dropping, colliding with other medals or orders. Who knows. I can only attest to the fact I have several "legit" medal groups that show or have some slight damage. How it was caused? Who knows.
At any rate thanks for the positing and requesting of assistance. I'm really enjoying reading other collectors perspective or observations. For me... this is why I belong to the Forum. This is good stuff!
Gerry C.
From the High Plains of the Midwest U.S.A.
I also believed this "flat spot" on the circle to be from dropping or whatever combat or postwar handling caused this. That was my initial thought. However with the other observations I strted to doubt.
It is true that the Defense of Sevastopol has the most amount of undocumented variations. Basically everywhere there's either the raised edge and no edge variations of the 1st variant mentioned . Subvariants are the sailers cap tally ends with a bigger or smaller distance between them, plus the sailers cap tally ends with flat ends or with two pointed ends. These variations are the only ones mentioned online and in books.
When studying these in detail one can see many maore subvariations. For example the canon's ends on the bottom. Both have this knob on the bottom. There are variations where these knobs touches the circle, there is a variation where there's a small distance between the knobs and the circle and there's variations where the knobs are a bit squeezed onto the circle. I have not yet seen a medal with one know touching the circle and one knob being squeezed onto the circle like the OP's medal.
Another tiny difference between the undocumented variations is the position of the sailers cap. From almost horizontal to leaning backwards a bit, with the front pointing upwards. And there's more of these tiny differences in variations.
Back to the OP's medal; it looks ok at first glance. My observations regarding the helmet strap buckle this could be yet another variant. Who knows. I have seen quite some Sevastopol medals by now but none had this feature yet. So that's a possibility, after all wear looks convincing as well.
I however doubt strongly on the 12 o'clock star and those different sized blocks left and right of this star. To me it doesn't look really convincing. First because it looks ugly and I would expect a higher quality from the Mint in the initial part of the war when these were made but especially since I haven't seen this feature on any of the Sevastopol medals.
Anyway, these are just my observations.
Thank you Marcel for your opinion. It was really interesting to read. I absolutely agree with you regarding that star at 12 o'clock it looks strange. The blocks on the top look diffrent probably because of the angle of camera when pictures were taken, it happens. The cannon knobs need to be studied, agree with you look strange. The soldiers helmet chinbelt was probably damaged and that damage looks like a buckle.(it is difficult to be sure as long as medal is not on my hands, picture are pictures). The web site mondvor.narod.ru gives info regarding that medals, but the picture of the medal presented there is not good enough to refer on it, the medal there totally worn off.
I will continue to study that medal and i will let you know my observations.
thanx again.
Best Regards!
I can't get behind it. The details look soft in some areas, then sharp in others, the wear doesn't strike me as even...sailors face looks worn, but the soldier looks sharp.
It could definitely be a variation, but I'm not convinced. I wouldn't have it in my collection.
The blocks you are refering to Marcel, I thought those were the muzzles of the cannons?
Could be muzzles yes. Been checking many medals now and I noticed a difference here as well in several variations. Either none of the muzzles is alligned with the tail ends of the canon, or only the left canon is alligned (bottom left to top right), or only the right canon is alligned (bottom right to top left). Never paid attention to this feature but it is quite obvious now.
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