DDR Award Cases and Award Latches

[Gordon Craig]

Gents,

I said on my post on the Faschismus medal yesterday that I would show pictures of the award lot I received that this medal was part of so I will start with that first. I'd like to use this lot of awards to show some different case designs and the three main catches used on awards in the life of the DDR.

[Gordon Craig]

I also mentioned in an earlier post the problems with the polystyrene coating on some of the medals coming off and if treated gently it could glued back into place. On the Aktivist der Socialistschen Arbeit that arrived had both pieces of polystyrene had come off. Here is a picture of the award without the polystyrene in place.

[Gordon Craig]

Here is the polystyrene pieces in the lid of the award case.

[Gordon Craig]

Here is the award with the polystyrene glued back into place. Need to take a break here. I'll continue with the rest of this thread later today.

Regards,

Gordon

Edited March 24, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

Back from my trip and now to continue by looking at some cases for DDR awards.

First I'll post one of the ealy awards. It is made of wood and covered in red papaer to simulate leather. It has a brass catch to hold it closed and a steel hinge. The interior is of black flocking with a recess for the nedal. The top is white nylon (or Dederon if you prefer) and is heavily padded. Here is a pic of the top of the case. It has some damage at the rear unfortunately.

Edited March 24, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

Here is a photo of the bottom of this case. It is covered with the same material as the top but does not have a ridge around the end.

[Gordon Craig]

Next is the yellow plastic case for the Ehrenmedaille sum 40 Jahrestag der DDR. It has a red interior. There is some damage around the edge of the hole that the medal sits in.

[Gordon Craig]

Now the interior of the case showing the medal.

[Gordon Craig]

Next up are the final white plastic cases used in the DDR. The top to these boxes is shown in the first photo.

Edited March 24, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

Now lets move on to the catches on the pins that held the awards on. The first one is the barrel catch used on all awards during the early years of the DDR.

[Gordon Craig]

The next catch was a much simplified catch. Just a flat piece of metal with a notch cut into it.

Edited March 24, 2007 by Gordon Craig

[Gordon Craig]

Last is the latch in use during the final years of the DDR. Now just a bent piece of metal without even a cutout.

[Hauptmann]

Hi Gordon,

Excellent thread! And great pics as well! There is so much still to be learned about DDR and Warsaw Pact collecting but I think we're making great strides here.

Looking forward to more great info on these. Thanks so much for sharing all this

Dan

[Guest Rick Research]

Is it possible from datable awards, to put approximate time periods for each of those being in use?

The third type catch and pin, for instance, seems to be on just about all Cuban awards seen, but in the absence of verifiable data on creation dates and so on, can only "date" a 1986 jubilee medal! Yet there are other awards that would SEEM to go back to the 1960s, if indeed they had been instituted that far back.

[Gordon Craig]

Rick,

I have that info, or at least some approximate dates somewhere. I'll see if I can dig it up over the next few days. The one thing you can be pretty certain of is that only an award with a barrel type latch should be found in an early type wooden case.

Regards,

Gordon