Ralph A

Here you go.

..

...

That's religious artifacts and gardening going into my favourite searches on ebay.

Part of my secret list of favorite e-bay searches:

?I don?t know what this is?+"cross"

?unknown cross?

?strange cross?

?jewelry cross?

"Iron crucifix"

"masonic cross"

"voodoo cross"

"1914 W" + "cross"

Happy hunting.

I got these from eBay; one was listed under "religious artifacts" and the other (heavens knows why) was listed under "gardening" Both sellers: "I don't know what this is..."

Got 'em for a song. la de da.

Note that the Prussian eagle is stood on his head. We can assume safely that this is not German but Allied instead.

I have over 50 "Imperial" lighters and vestas, but most are English and French, etc. Should I put those into a separate thread?

This coin-studded one is book-shaped.

As are these:

I insist that all lighters in my collection be complete and in good working order. This one is a favorite:

Reverse, oui?

A new addition:

If you have a real gold one, there's usually no doubt. It has a certain "look, sheen and feel" ...sort of like having a Sovereign in hand. Clink clink.

- Scrooge McDuck

I will reply privately. Best regards to all true gentlemen,

Ralph McCall Abercrombie III

Sorry, Don. I've been busy; I've curtailed most forum activity until I've finished some important private business that will take about eight months to complete. It involves a publisher...

Until then, I will be scarce.

I will take a closer look at the cross you posted this weekend, and then I will weigh in. I want to examine especially and carefully the center of your cross, and comapre it to my own Friedlaender and to my image library.

Some "treen:"

Now that you've gone this far, consider dunking it in some of that new-fangled "guaranteed not to harm your heirlooms" liquid silver polish and see how that works. I've always wanted to do that... I wanna see one all minty and shiny!

оно требует имени и пароля потребителя. Furthermore, я верю Рик может перевести, но он имеет не cyrillic средство программирования характера установленное на его компьютер.

Or something like that.

I concede, after a closer look.

I have a set of duplicate ribbon bars to the same man and when I compare the differences there are VERY few. The fabric stretches in the same places and the stitching is identical on both. You would think them to be the same bar if I showed them to you one after the other. The moire' patterns even match! Weird, and scary.... I believe it might be easier to fake and duplicate these things than some seem to think it is.

I'm experienced with fabrics and stitch-work, so this is not an uninformed opinion.

Let me reiterate, however, that in this instance the bars seem to be the same.

Finally...

Boxed set:

More senninbari; a so-called "tiger belt." I've been informed that women born in the "year of the tiger" could apply 12 stitches, or up to their age. This one has a block "hanko" stamp.

The Japanese translates correctly to "thousand-person-stitches" and not "thousand-stitch-belt."

The flag peeking out from behind it is a "1000-people" power-kanji flag. Geishas could sign 10 times...

Another. This one has some Chinese characters (not uncommon). Usual well-wishers.

Ed, speaking of OMSA... this Act and the discourse it has generated prompted me to finally join. I bought two memberships and asked the board to consider the second one a contribution to the cause.

I feel compelled to point out this article is written by a fellow collector and it states merely that "a legal group that examined the law says collectors appear to be safe..."

Appear to be?

Dispassionately, I asked my lawyers (the Capitol Hill fellows - not the family shysters) about this issue. Their answers were surprising, and might be dismaying... if I was a "U.S." collector.

This issue is rapidly becoming even more politically charged than it already is. There are the usual agendas that have nothing to do with stolen valor. Surprise, surprise.