Stogieman

Great subject, great information Stijn. Awesome slice of history Chris!

Nice grouping Chris. Especially the document to lend credence!

Nice finds Chris... I never find anything this neat when we go away, but I still enjoy checking every place we go!

Greetings Mike! The only stamped Imperial Flight badges with multi-parts that I have seen are as follows:

Observer badge with applied "flag" (Both Prussian/Bavarian)

Aerial Gunner Badge with multi-part construction-Prussia

(In theory, Bavarian is too, but I have never seen one I was confident was real)

No multi-part Pilots that I have ever seen. Both prussian/Bavarian were one-piece stampings.

Greetings WildCard! Thanks for that little detail, I did not realize there were that many variations!!

Unfortunately, the scan of the reverse is a corrupted file that I have not figured out how to fix yet. HD Crashes are terrible things

To compare, here's a 50 Year disc on a PCO3

My apologies Peter! I thought you meant the 4.kl. disc was bad, The fakes on the top grades/oaks I readily/heartily agree are bad.... I should have been clearer. I have not ever seen a bogus disc on a 3. or 4. Klasse Prussian Order of the Crown. Have not seen a fake disc in silver for the Red Eagle 4. Klasse, nor one with the Allgemeine Ehrenzeichen of either class. These "lower grade" orders with long service discs have been neglected by the fakers thus far.

Sadly, as with all things these days, the spiraling upward prices (I can only recall about 6 times last 2 or 3 years a lower grade like this has been offered in any venue) will attract their attention in very short order....

The eBay cross is one of the earlier pieces IMO, that used many "leftover" 1870 cases.... These earlier cases are usually slightly domed, deeper real velvet insert, gold EK on the lid and "nail-head" opener. The earlier production for WW1 followed the exact same design, but held a different style (non-domed) lid. These are beautiful pieces....

Couple of things to note on this bar:

Condition is stunning

Radiator Paint (as the other Rick likes to call it) on the Hanseatic Cross

Proud Saxon

I have always felt this bar was an NCO bar. What type or branch? I don't think we'll ever figure that out.

Interesting group of documents Chris. Thanks for sharing these!

You have a thin, hollow stamped gold disc, real gold from the photo and I still believe the piece shown to be real. My opinion, for what it's worth.

And the reverse. I can't comment on the medal, I am unfamiliar with this one. The ribbon was the same for the 1864 NC KDM as well

A little late, but still a nice non-combattant ribbon. Courtesy of J?rg Kalies

RAO Medal is not "entry level"... the order was almost exclusively officer and fourth class was entry. The medal is kind of an "afterthought" for NCO's, etc. not many awards, mind you... I can count on one hand the number of these I've ever seen in mounted groups and only one photo of one being worn. Pretty scarce!

Well, it was cheap and that runs right in line with what the seller said and what Rick thought. Simply a "you have served and now your retired" document. Perhaps this entitled him to some sort of priviledges like free soup, or "get out of jail free" when the newest group of KGB came a knockin' at the door!

Hmmmm, did not see "I love riddles" line??

And page 2. Excellent condition. Neat!

First Page inside. Cute photo!

This was cheap, and I absolutely love riddles. Seller said it's a Mongolian KGB ID,

Ministry of Internal Affairs of MPR to Comissar Dashbalbar, on reserve.

Date of Service: May 07, 1946

Name: Senior Leutenant Jadamba Dashalbar

Duty: Senior Comissar of Secret Service, 1942

And that's why there's Two Twins, aka The League of Two Rickies. My (Truly) Evil Twin (The Evil Rick Research) has knowledge of Red Cross stuff that I cannot even begin to scratch the surface on!

That's much later striped paper tape being used to reinforce that very fragile looking box as well.... Nice to see this family valued the piece enough to try to preserve the history. A nice change of pace, even with the "adulterations".

Reverse of same. Yes, different style. Mounted wrong, one would have to seriously question the "shocking pink" backing material despite the fact that we do actually see this color material quite often! What's very nice about this one is it isn't bled into the ribbons as is so often the cases with the more vibrant backing materials. A little rain and/or sweat and things get messy real fast!

Here's a nice and correctly mounted Life Saving Medal on a Prussian Bar