Stogieman

stunning! And very interesting with that logo impressed into the tray!

Gordon, it's interesting that the swastika on the "RK" is black. I don't think it's from a shadow, it looks like it was actually highlighted somehow in black! Also note the change in suspension of the KVK2wX to RKwX.... someone put some serious effort into fabricating this award for him!

Nice collection Paul. Very nice indeed!

Hi Dave, thanks. So the ribbon next to the D/A (that holds the merit cross right now) is probably for the Jubilee Medal?

I think the Time Traveler one is the same. I'll try and post some photos tonight of the 2 styles of official issue boxes.

One of the things that is significant about this bar is to consider how much time passed between the award of the medal and the official sanctioning of the bars themselves. You can tell he mounted the bar after the medal was already mounted by the 'pinch" of the cloth. The Evil One, Rick Research can provide the specific dates/details.

Just an FYI, Carsten Baldes listed a nice 800 silver version, no maker for the bargain price of 200- Euro yesterday.

Nice collection, it just keeps growing, doesn't it? As The Evil One says, "it's a slippery slope".. !

Dave, do you know off the top of your head when the War Merit Cross was instituted? Might date the bar into WW1, not pre-1913? Although, it would be very unusual to see a WW1, or later bar with the spange mounted like this.

Dave's eyes are better than mine! I'd agree, small gold, large silver looking at the hooks. That will be a tough one to find, but would make for a long & fun search. That's at least half the fun of this to me, the hunt itself.

ahhh, I've got it now.... the Merit Cross is in the back. My fast look and I thought it was a Long Service Cross..... hmmm, makes it interesting..

Any others? Bring 'em on! More, more, more... the variety here is just scratching the surface. I really like the late-war boxes. There's so very, very few of these left anymore.

Hi Eric, great stuff. I am always surprised at the detail/quality difference between the different patterns. Assmann was certainly a premium vendor and made top-notch pieces. How about a photo of the backs so folks can see what real ones look like? Thanks!

Any others? How about some more boxes?!!

Bill, love the packet & ribbon picture. That's a tough one to find. There's several variations of it (oh Marcus??) pretty nifty that of all of the WW2 ribbons, this one was the only one (so far as we know) that came packeted/titled. I have tons of loose ribbons both WW1 & WW2 that were just stuffed in dealer marked envelopes. But even over both world wars, the '39 EK2 is the only one I've seen with its' own little packet!

I never tire of seeing this basic bar. Consider for a moment the number of soldiers who fought for their lives in WW1 and came home with only this..... It does give one pause.

Did anybody actually by this cross? If so, please add some photos to the thread when you can. Thanks!

I don't have good photos of the 1. Klasse cross in my archives, anybody else??

... and the Centennial should be moved behind the KDM. My guess would be definately legit bar, ca. 1895/1900 based on style/materials. Definately pre-1913, but concur on the difficulty in locating both a Gold & Silver Merit Medal. The Merit Cross of the BZL will not be real easy to find either. They're out there, but very hard to find! Especially from Friedrich I

I saw one of these on Weitze's site. It's not one of the two known original issue boxes, but I suppose the piece could have been re-packed by this jeweler. The two issue boxes (tall/short) both came with the Hamburg crest on the lid. They were identical and white with the only difference being the actual size of the box.

I think if you can find an authentic example of a ribbon bar with these three awards on it, for under $400, you're doing very, very well..... Currently, there are less than six (6) known within the global collecting/forum community.

Nope, only one I've ever seen. These are archive photos, it was sold last year.

And the boxed set:

Good start! Color, base metal, hinge, pin and catch are all quite wrong!

Yep, reversed order. no photo of the back of the bar posted on his site. Just a close-up of the 3 LS ribbons/devices. Devices look real. Ribbons are real. If it was a tab-back, it could be "fixed".... but $390? That's not a bad price for what would amount to the 5th or 6th real one I've seen!