Watch List notes:

Russia, Birobidzhan "Jewish Autonomous Oblast" uniface colored enamel medallion (ND), circa. 2000s; no artist mark, manufactured by "GN" company; weight: 55.2g; size: 59.75mm. Depicts coat of arms of the Jewish Autonomous region in center with multicolored stripe flashes (flag of the Jewish region), an olive(?) branch and Russian legend around edge "Jewish Autonomous Oblast" ("Yevreyskaya Avtonomnaya Oblast"). The oblast ("region") is located in far eastern Russia near the Chinese border, and founded in 1934 by Stalin as part of his overall policy of separating out Russia's various minority nationalities into remote regions but encouraging their non-nationalistic growth and socialist development there. In this case, Birobidzhan was his attempt to ween Jews off of Zionist and any religious affiliations, though the region never became popular among Jews of their own accord. Fewer than 18,000 Jews lived there in 1939, and today there are only around 2,000 Jews there. In UNC.