The difference is that the hammer and sickle has been removed from the flag.
The red star and hammer and sickle are themselves symbols of communism and socialism.
Prior to this, the flag was red with a gold hammer and sickle in the top-left corner.
The plates carried a hammer and sickle as their makers' mark, but they also carried the mark from their original imperial manufacture twenty years before.
The upper part of the shield was decorated with a five-pointed star and the lower part with the hammer and sickle symbol.
Below the hammer and sickle is a globe, which is superimposed atop a rising sun.
Sometimes the hammer and sickle was depicted inside or below the star.
The top red portion took of the width and incorporated the mandatory hammer and sickle and red star.
