Igor Ostapenko
Участник АК
началась в сети дискуссия об изготовлении ордена в Великобритании
« A number of collectors have purchased Orders of the Liberation believing the story that they are London-made insignia hallmarked after the Liberation by the Paris Mint or produced by the Paris Mint using the John Pinches dies. They have paid from €600 to €1,500, which is nothing like the price of a genuine London-made example.
Two French researchers preparing a serious study of the Ordre de la Libération have not been able to find any proof that the Paris Mint would have contravened every written and unwritten law of the profession by appropriating the work of John Pinches (Medallists) Ltd in this manner. As for the suggestion by some French dealers and collectors that the Pinches tooling belonged to the Free French administration, this story is highly unlikely. In any case, no ODLL made with Pinches’ tooling has been seen with the Monnaie de Paris hallmark.
As an Honorary Member of the Association de la France Libre for almost thirty years, since before coming to live in Paris, I have been unable to find any documentation relating to the business relationship between the Gaullist government-in-exile and British firms like John Pinches and J R Gaunt. Gaunt signed some of its Free French medals and Free French veterans confirmed that the Ordre de la Libération was produced by Pinches. Pinches’ archives were lost after the firm was acquired by the Franklin Mint in 1969.
The Paris Mint has made more than one type of the insignia over the years and none of them are identical to the London insignia. Nor have any genuine Pinches ODLL ever been seen with Paris Mint hallmarks. But a few crooked dealers have made big profits selling early Paris Mint ODLL to hopeful collectors for a lot more than they are worth but a lot less than the value of a Pinches original made between 1940 and 1944.
You shouldn’t believe the stories about rare variants made in Brazzaville and Algiers either. Below are scans from a very rare wartime booklet with a studio photograph of the Order and modern photos of the wartime Order. Compare them carefully to the Paris Mint variants. They are not the same.«
« A number of collectors have purchased Orders of the Liberation believing the story that they are London-made insignia hallmarked after the Liberation by the Paris Mint or produced by the Paris Mint using the John Pinches dies. They have paid from €600 to €1,500, which is nothing like the price of a genuine London-made example.
Two French researchers preparing a serious study of the Ordre de la Libération have not been able to find any proof that the Paris Mint would have contravened every written and unwritten law of the profession by appropriating the work of John Pinches (Medallists) Ltd in this manner. As for the suggestion by some French dealers and collectors that the Pinches tooling belonged to the Free French administration, this story is highly unlikely. In any case, no ODLL made with Pinches’ tooling has been seen with the Monnaie de Paris hallmark.
As an Honorary Member of the Association de la France Libre for almost thirty years, since before coming to live in Paris, I have been unable to find any documentation relating to the business relationship between the Gaullist government-in-exile and British firms like John Pinches and J R Gaunt. Gaunt signed some of its Free French medals and Free French veterans confirmed that the Ordre de la Libération was produced by Pinches. Pinches’ archives were lost after the firm was acquired by the Franklin Mint in 1969.
The Paris Mint has made more than one type of the insignia over the years and none of them are identical to the London insignia. Nor have any genuine Pinches ODLL ever been seen with Paris Mint hallmarks. But a few crooked dealers have made big profits selling early Paris Mint ODLL to hopeful collectors for a lot more than they are worth but a lot less than the value of a Pinches original made between 1940 and 1944.
You shouldn’t believe the stories about rare variants made in Brazzaville and Algiers either. Below are scans from a very rare wartime booklet with a studio photograph of the Order and modern photos of the wartime Order. Compare them carefully to the Paris Mint variants. They are not the same.«
