Stogieman

BTW, the price of these are ~250 USD each, they weigh a TON and are expensive to ship. But they are phenominal pieces of work!!

After combing through this clown's (the seller!) listings, I would have to say that apart from the insensitivity to history and family, the blatent and forthright attempt to maximize his return from the group is only seconded by the different bidders. I have never understood the mentality of the "I only wanted this anyway", or the "I only collect this" anyway bidder......... The main reason these type of things continues to be perpetuated is that people bid. Maybe, if everyone who did not bid sent this idiot an eMail stating that they will not bid and why and what they would have been willing to pay for an intact group................ they might get the message. I rather doubt it, but who knows?

I would agree with Wildcard, the Baden Medals for Military merit are substantially harder to find and they are named! Excellent point!!

Hi Chris, I think you can push it a little higher, ca. 100- Euro. Why? Despite the condition the 2 Regimental pieces are hard to find and there are collectors in your neck of the woods who specialize in the regimental pieces. It's especially unusual to find one mounted with the official pieces (of this era)

BTW, I think this bar is 1920's ...... I have an almost exactly the same construction, stitching, no backing that came in a group of bars to a Turkish front fighter......

Not much you can do, bidding on the pieces will certainly drive the prices to the level of stupidity. Of course since they all just clip in you could recreate the bar and just try and buy the bar and the EK1 w. document......

Heh, heh, heh......... finally, something that clouds his mind.....

Greetings Haynau, excellent details and information. I had not realized the differences on the eagles. I was always just looking at the suspensions! Thanks!!

Fabulous! many do look a little familiar but just as many don't! Nice bars David (and happy T-Day as well!!)

The mods will sift, compile and post an Imperial reference guide and pin it soon. Thanks to all for a great list and a great idea!!

You always wonder about these Prussian "trios" with one "foreign" order.... Lipee on one, Reuss on the other........ how did this happen? Held a door open at the right time? Lit the requisite number of cigars/cigarettes/Tiparellos at the state dinner?? I always wonder, but perhaps I'm just a weirdo......

I cannot publicly comment on this bar... it's been on my watch list since it posted 2 days ago! ;>)

I would agree. Lippe House Order, not Brunswick.

The wreath signified that it was actually the Order, not the Merit Medal on the KF War Ribbon.

And a close-up of the center:

Hi Rusty, here's the back

In my continuing theme of "what am I missing"....... I will say in some cases, this is what I am not missing. A rather well done, but cast copy of the Suwarow on a "early style" suspension. Yuck......

His reverse photo.

Hi Christian, perhaps we all need to be aware.... these seem to be popping up far too often! http://cgi.ebay.de/Waffenring-Deutsche-sch...1QQcmdZViewItem I cannot tell from his photo if it is good or bad, wouldn't even try!

Rats, Hohenzollern would not have been my guess for that crown stamp at all. Very nice!!

I think 120- Euro is a tad high. I see people asking crazy prices for the minis but I do not see them sell very often at those prices!

Hi Dave, I'm quite sure that not only will Gordon take good care of it, he'll put it in his book!

Thanks Marshall, you have a discerning eye and I would practice it... it has payed off for me to have one on the flight badges in more ways than one. The other comment I would make is that I thought the stem on the backs of the 1914 crosses wasn't straight "down".... I think that core is the same die on all 3 crosses, or at least extremely close?? Shouldn't the stem on the 1914 be turned aside a bit?

Well, like I said... Neophyte and what am I missing. The thing that surprises me is that with so little real "open market" time since the collapse of the CCCP as opposed to the 100+ years of research, faking, etc. with other countries.... is just how much really bad, altered, weird, funny, just plain dubious stuff floating around the market place in such a short time!! A minefield for sure.

Just to stoke the fires of Marcus, as it were. Here's the Lippe Cross For Merit in War, another EK2 equivalent from this small Duchy........ in the original issue packet!!