Friday 3 November 2017

Help needed with a commemorative medal.

Back in 2009, whilst Mr. Putin was readying things for the bicentenary of the Battle of Borodino in 2012, I visited the battlefield. Whilst there I managed to pick up a commemorative medal as a souvenir. 


As far as I could gather, from one of the Babushkas in the museum shop, this Bagration / Borodino medal was cast using bronze from a cannon that was fired on the field of Borodino back in 1812, though I think quite a bit was was lost in translation, and it all sounded rather dodgy to me at the time. I can't remember how much the medal was (my brother-in-law took care of everything for the whole Russia trip) but I have a feeling it was quite pricey.


Unfortunately, I can't find anything about this particular medal anywhere, which leads me to believe it's either quite rare or quite worthless. If any of this blog's readers can help me out with the following queries, I'd appreciate it. 

1. Was it actually cast from the metal of a gun used in the battle? 
2. What is the literal translation of the writing / legend?
3. Does it have anything other than a sentimental souvenir value?


It's quite thick and quite heavy. I've placed a British penny, EU two cent piece and USA one cent piece next to the medal for scale. I've also taken a shot of the presentation case it came in, which appears to be wood and leather (possibly leather effect plastic).


Thanks for looking.

4 comments:

Epictetus said...

I'm not sure why you didn't just ask me in the first place. It says "200 years from the date of the battle of Borodino".

Were I on the Antiques Roadshow I would say "Sentimental value only, I'm afraid." and you would reply that you wouldn't dream of selling it in any case.

JAMES ROACH said...

Hi Graham, thanks. I didn't know you could read cyrillic script.

As you say, it's not for sale.

Mostly, I would like to know about the metal it's made of. Somehow, I'm not sure about the Russians melting down a cannon but, having said that, one gun would produce several thousand of these things and this would help cover the costs of the substantial amount of work being carried out in preparation for the bicentennial celebrations when I visited (if I remember rightly, it was pricey - 6000 roubles?).

pancerni said...

Still, better than a ball cap! Kinda neat, even if the 'from a cannon' provenance of the metal does not pan out.

Кирилл said...

Hello.
In my opinion it's souvenier.
But you can use this forum http://www.reenactor.ru/index.php?s=80d4d77deed674b02dabec8fc7be6941&act=idx
This is the forum of Russan reenactors. I think there will help you.
What about price. 6000 roubles is about 100$.