Gordon Williamson

I agree, when you think of the kind of prices Knight's Crosses of the Iron Cross are fetching, yet they are not that rare. I could probably point to a couple of dozen original Knight's Crosses of the EK on various sites right now. Try finding a good cased RK of the KVK . Not many around.

Mind you these mini RK of the KVK are very expensive. This one cost me the price of a good full size German Cross.

They still seem relatively undervalued when you consider the rocketing prices of other more common awards. Although "relatively" is by no means cheap. Lovely set!

←

Very nice Sal ! I've seen a few of these with the slides rather than prongs, but never seen a maker marked one before. I suspect these notches in the ribbon may have been caused by just wear/friction rubbing against the slides rather than deliberate. The small length of the ribbon when worn on the buttonhole wouldn't really leave much opportunity for the clasp to slide up and down so I think it was just left "loose".

Lovely piece Jan Arne. Next to Schwerin, I think the early tombak GWL are the nicest of the Destroyer badges.

Absolutely stunning example Jody !!

Very nice, and very unusual. I have only ever seen one other 1914 EK2 with the 800 mark on the frame but without the crown and crescent.

Thanks Laurence. Wasn't cheap, but I couldn't resist it, it makes a perfect companion for the full size Steinhauer RK.

Beautiful Gordon

←

Reverse

Obverse

Close up of case

And with the little fella

First the big guy

Thanks for sharing Peter. Very , very nice indeed.

Hi Jan-Arne,

I have an identical piece to the unidentified one. I've never been able to determine the maker. It is quite similar to Klein & Quenzer but definitely not the same.

The vertical pin f.o. is certainly scarcer than the horizontal. It put it on a part with the type with the cut out swastika for scarcity.

Hi Gerd,

Nice group. Thats actually a 7th Class, not 6th. Next is a China Incident Medal, the Commemorative Medal for the 2600th Anniversary of the foundation of the Japanese Empire (celebrated in 1940) and a Japanese Red Cross membership medal. Certainly the group of a WW2 junior ranking soldier (Enlisted man or a Corporal etc).

The change in shape is more apparent when the two are compared side by side. This was done because the old shape for the 6th Class was identical to the 5th Class but for the outer rays being pale gilded. Visually the two were too similar to tell apart unless you were close up.

Reverse

Close up obverse

Another, earlier 6th Class. The shape of the white sunburst rays was changed in 1940. This is the earlier version.

Reverse showing rivetted construction

Close up Obverse

My 6th Class. Interesting that the Kanji on the box lid are slightly different to John's. You can see that they are basically the same but executed in a slightly different style

Richard

A posthumous U-Boat Badge Document can easily fetch ?400 - ?500 on its own.

Docs for the Spanish Cross in Bronze are not all that rare, but a U-Boat one would fetch a premum price. |I would be thinking of a starting price of no less than around ?600-?700 for the pair. Many U-Boat men got the Spanienkreuz while serving on surface ships, only transferring to U-Boats later. Only a small number actually served in U-Boats during the civil war. If it is established that this guy got the Spanienkreuz actually on a U-Boat it would be very rare.

Here's a KMST I used to own. They sure went for the wierdest fittings.

Hi Dan,

Yes I think a lot of folk are unaware of the civil 57 awards.

Simplistically put, these were considered legitimate awards, i.e. perfectly normal innocent "non-politically motivated" people served as policemen, firemen, customs officers, the Labour Corps was a pre-Nazi concept, so in itself was "legit".

These are all "civil" awards. The ones which were not re-introduced in 1957 "neue Form" style were the "Political" awards, so while you have a 57 RAD award, you won't find a 57 NSDAP Long Service or a 57 SS Long Service.

Military Awards not reintroduced are few. Even the Anti-Partisan was allowed in 57 form but not the Spanish Cross ( seen as political) and the so called "Flowers Wars" medals, seen as foir Nazi agression and expansionism.

Fire Cross