Brass, enamels; measures 48.7 x 37.0 mm; weighs 16.9 g not including the screw plate. This elongated version of the badge was manufactured by the NKPS factory starting in 1943. This particular version features seven scrolls in the top ornament and is believed to be the earliest of all the variations of the badge. Rated 5 (highest level) for rarity in both the Airapetyan's and Khlamkin's reference guides.

In very fine to excellent condition, outstanding for a combat proficiency badge as rare as the first version of the Excellent Pontoon Bridge Builder. The enamel is we

Brass, enamels; measures 48.7 x 37.0 mm; weighs 16.9 g not including the screw plate. This elongated version of the badge was manufactured by the NKPS factory starting in 1943. This particular version features seven scrolls in the top ornament and is believed to be the earliest of all the variations of the badge. Rated 5 (highest level) for rarity in both the Airapetyan's and Khlamkin's reference guides.

In very fine to excellent condition, outstanding for a combat proficiency badge as rare as the first version of the Excellent Pontoon Bridge Builder. The enamel is well-preserved and shows a beautiful luster throughout. There is a darker area in the center medallion resulting from tiny internal hairlines. Besides that, the red enamel in the center has only a few very tiny contact marks and a microscopic amount of flaking mostly along the edges of the hammer & sickle emblem which is unnoticeable to the naked eye. The white band has a couple of minuscule chips at its borders, some surface flaking, and rubbing - none of it really noticeable or detractive. The blue enamel is essentially perfect, having only a couple of microscopic flakes and a few contact marks that are completely invisible without magnification.

The details of the wreath are perfectly preserved and crisp; most of its original gilt finish is still present. The fragile grey finish on the edge of the shield is also entirely intact. The screw post is of full length, approx. 14 mm - has not been reduced.

The badge comes with a mint-marked WW2 screw plate, same as was used on the early Valor and Combat Service medals on rectangular suspension. Although the badge was produced by the NKPS and the screw plate by the mint, the screw plate fits the screw perfectly. Curiously, none of the standard NKPS screw plates of the period that we have tried would fit the characteristically thick screw post of the badge. It is therefore imaginable - although impossible to prove - that surplus screw plates for the very early series of the Pontoon Bridge Builder badges were indeed acquired from the mint, especially considering that such screw plates had become obsolete in 1943 after the change to the new five-sided suspension design of the Combat Service / Valor medals.

Whatever is the case with its screw plate, the first WW2 version of the Pontoon Bridge Builder badge in such a nice condition is a very rare find!

/B. Airapetyan, Breast Badges of the Red Army, 1941-1945, p. 114, fig. 1; A. Khlamkin Red Army Breast Badges of Excellence (1942- 1957), Type 1/
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