Simius Rex

The purpose of this thread is to chronicle the output of fakes and forgeries from a single producer that will undoubtedly impact the collecting community for countless decades to come. It is the only online forum with such an important and comprehensive data base featuring these fakes. Therefore, it is vital that posting photographs of these items continue as long as the fakes continue flooding the market. I believe that Dr Speck is providing an extremely important service that will benefit the collecting community long after we are all gone and forgotten. None of the moderators have objected to these photographs being posted. I imagine they would have mentioned something by now if the file sizes were too large. I would strongly advise against reducing the pixel sizes of these images. Most of these pieces are so well executed that seeing the fine details of these pieces is crucial to being able to identify and distinguish them from originals. I think we should all express our gratitude to Dr Speck for his continued effort to keep us informed about these abominations.

It is true, that the faker discussed here is not the only dealer selling fake German material. What distinguishes the Schrägstich Faker from all the other con-artists is that he/she is a prolific assembler and producer of reproduction medal bars using these fake medals and modern ribbons. The sewing- and mounting-styles of these medal bars are identical to one another making them relatively easy to identify as his/her products.

This is a classic example of the work of the Schrägstich Faker. Note his signature Schräg-Sticherei (diagonal stitiching) of the backing cloth. This is exactly how this prolific fraudster got his name. There is German Forum (SDA) where the Schrägstich-Faker's products are routinely discussed. However, only links to eBay auctions in Germany are posted as references. When those auctions and photos disappear from eBay's database after 90 days, those discussions of these fakes on SDA will become utterly useless! Only here, on GMIC, will collectors have a comprehensive database of photos documenting these abominations that seem to be fooling even experienced collectors.

It would be helpful if you could post a picture of this bar. It should also be noted that several imperial Austrian awards were reproduced by private companies during the interwar period as replacements for lost or damaged pieces much like EKs and other imperial German awards. They were classified as "Spangenstücke" or "Zweitstücke" and did not have the sharp details of the originals. There was recently a discussion in this forum relating to this topic.

Considering the absurd combination of awards coupled with the ridiculous number of awards, there is little doubt that this bar is a postwar fake. However, it is not the work of the Schrägstich Faker. It actually has the characteristics of the Austrian Faker's bars. Most notably, the Schrägstich Faker uses well made fake awards for his bars except for the Iron Cross, the FEK, and a few other original awards that are inexpensive. In contrast, the Austrian Fakers bars have genuine awards from the period. The Schrägstich Faker uses modern ribbons with chain-stitch and whip-stitch weave patterns. The Austrian Faker uses authentic, pre-1945 period ribbons with warp and weft weave patterns. The Schrägstich Faker mounts his ribbons in a style that Germans term "Kraus-genäht" resulting in a bold, pleated, fan-shaped ruffle at the base. The Austrian Faker's ribbons are neatly overlapped on the front, but his pleating technique on the bottom is a bit sloppy and crowded. Most of the time, the ribbons are just stretched top to bottom with no attempt at ruffles at all. And last but not least, the Schrägstich Faker's bars feature his bold, diagonal stitching style on the backing cloth which has become his trademark and the basis for his notorious moniker "Schrägstich".

Nevertheless, the medal bar shown has all the earmarks of the Schraegstich Faker's work. The medals are fake except for the EK2, FEK, and Long Service Cross. All the ribbons are modern except (strangely enough) the Colonial Denkmuenze ribbon. The case originally held medical or dental instruments of some kind.

@drspeck : I just wanted to express my sincere appreciation to our Doctor Bacon for keeping this thread up-to-date on the fakes being offered and sold by this despicable fraudster. I believe this thread will ultimately serve as an important "Lehrgeld" -resource for collectors who were duped by this con artist and will also educate collectors on the merits of doing their homework before spending their hard-earned money on garbage. I am adding a medal bar to this thread that was constructed by the Schraegstich Faker but sold by an eBay seller who routinely sells authentic militaria. I have a sense that this seller figured-out he bought a fake bar and then resold it on eBay to a clueless buyer.

You are absolutely correct. This medal bar is unmistakably the handiwork of the Schrägstich Faker. The eBay seller offering it (mansamusa2) is one of his 38 aliases. I'm going to post the pictures of this bar and 3 others Mr. Schrägstich is currently selling because the pages tied to the links will disappear after 3 months. I would strongly suggest that eBay shoppers here make a note of all aliases used by this con-artist listed at the beginning of this thread. This will help you avoid any disappointments and wasting your money. In addition to newly crafted medal bars with fake awards, he sells a wide variety of imperial orders, decorations, badges by themselves... and the quality of these fakes is getting better and better all the time!

This is one medal bar by Mr. Schraegstich I missed seeing because I haven't visited eBay.de lately. The Iron Cross and the jubilee clasp are obvious fakes, but the other 4 awards are genuine. It doesn't make sense (yet!!) to fake these common medals because they are readily available for modest prices. All of the ribbons are modern reproductions as evidenced by their whip-stitched edges. These ribbons are sold in bulk by a seller we know as the "Club". Would it be possible to post a picture of the back of this bar? That way, we can see this faker's signature diagonal stitching of the backing cloth.

This thread has veered off-course and has rapidly degenerated into a pissing-up-the-rope contest. My goal in starting this thread was to document a new wave of sophisticated fakes hitting the collector's market which includes detailed discussions about their characteristics compared to originals. It was to serve not only as a reference-resource for collectors, but also as a learning tool for those who want to fine-tune their ability to spot these high-quality fakes. @CollectorInTheUSA : I am disappointed and a bit annoyed that you have turned this otherwise educational thread into a discussion about which auction houses it's "safe" to buy from. It has nothing to do with the focus of this thread and is totally OFF-TOPIC. Your question resulted in a round-about discussion involving ethical and legal obligations crossing into a baffling Bernie Madoff analogy with various other pontifications and irrelevancies thrown-in. PLEASE START YOUR OWN THREAD IF YOU WANT TO GET RECOMMENDATIONS OF TRUSTWORTHY AUCTIONS HOUSES FROM THE MEMBERS. Simply state, "I don't want to become informed about the items on which I want to bid, so which middle-man-peddler can I trust to do my thinking for me without getting screwed?" I AM KINDLY REQUESTING THE MEMBERS TO PLEASE GET THIS THREAD BACK ON-TRACK, and mods... please consider moving these off-topic posts to a separate, new thread in the Lounge Sub-Forum. Thank you.

Here are the requested pics of the 2 crosses. Regarding fakes and auction houses... It is the responsibility of the buyer to KNOW what he is bidding on. If a bidder does not have the knowledge, he has no business bidding. DO YOUR RESEARCH! Study photographs of originals and learn from experienced collectors by reading online forums. If you get stuck buying a fake, it is your own fault for not performing the neccessary due-diligence!! An auctioneer's fiduciary duty is to the seller... not the buyer. It has been that way for centuries. Keep that in mind when bidding!!

Hi Peter. There are a few good copies of this cross circulating, unfortunately. The cross currently offered by Mr. Schraegstich LUCKILY has some strange features which are somewhat obvious if compared to a few authentic examples. Note the especially fat arms, the "too precise" and oversized block letters, and the wrong hinge, just to name a few things. Some orignals for comparison...

I hope you didn't get stuck with any fake bars. This fraudsters fake bars with fake medals fetch astonishing prices like the one below that sold recently on eBay. It's got modern ribbons, a fake Red Eagle, a fake Albrecht Cross, a fake Afrika Medal, a fake Long Service Cross, and 4 fake combat clasps.

I've read comments about these fakes such as, "they wouldn't fool anybody" and "they'll never fetch any serious amount of money." You would probably tend to disagree with these statements after checking-out the result of just one of the Schrägstich Faker's auctions...

The seller of the above posted fakes is one and the same fraudster with several aliases. He seems to operate in and around the region of Aachen, but his source or sources of these fakes remains unknown. The medal bars, however, are entirely his creations with his trademark diagonal stitching.