Andwwils

1847 Seated Liberty

Hold on.

The first word has to be "reiter," the "t" is distinct from the "i." The second word is "Schwimmen," the two m's in the middle of the word run together badly. The man whos book this was, was one for understatement. He does not list his wound badge entry nor his Honor Cross for Combattants, but he clearly got the wound badge in WWI based on his wounds for that conflict which are listed in the book. I' m going to get a scanner within the next couple of weeks. I can't get a good shot of the book with my digital camera. Stay tuned...

There is a comma between "Reiter" and what I think is "Schwimmern." There is only one "e" in the word on closer inspection. The two words are not connected.

Hi Hardy, There appears to be no suffix behind the word "Reiter." He lists it first however, followed by "Schwimmeren" and then "Fuhrershein 3b" in box 12 on page 4. It is indeed an officer's wehrpass. It makes sense that officer's would be held to a higher-standard when making qualification entries of this sort, but I can't find any other place within the book.

You should have taken it to your local coin shop and gotten at least bullion-rate for it. In regards to the ebay coin, it's a deep-mirror cameo proof and some people think those are worth a premium. I collect Seated-Liberty Dollars myself...talk about expensive! I'm lucky to add a new coin to my collection once every couple of years.

I assumed that there was no true way of knowing whether or not the entry in the book is meant to impy that he qualified for an Equestrian Badge of some-sort or not. I have seen SA and Reich sport badges listed in box 12 on page 4, but never an Equestrian Badge or Horse Driver's Badge. In response to the Eastern-Front, oddly enough this book is for a Major d. R. in IR 67 that was killed in action 2 days into Operation Barbarossa...in Lithuania! I'm hoping to get a scanner soon so that I can post some of my collection online for the enjoyment of others. Thank you both for your help.

In one of my Wehrpasses, on page 4 in box twelve dealing with qualifications, the person it was issued to has "reiter" listed. Does this mean that he would have qualified for some grade of the Reiterabzeichen?

Trieste would have been an ideal location for the base hospital (which would have been a center of operations for the vast number of US ambulance sections attached to the 332nd) that was maintained by the US during the Italian Campaign. There is (or was) a railway line through Trieste to the Adriatic back during the war, so the 332nd *may* have arrived in Italy there in July of 1918, but I can't be sure. A special (and quite rare) campaign clasp for the WWI Victory Medal was issued for members of the 332nd, the "Vittorio-Veneto" clasp. Hope this helps a little.

Yes, the Saint Guadens design-type. I've always liked them as well but with Gold being as high as it is right now, a set like yours is out of the price-range of the average collector here in the US. Originally, the Saint Guadens was a 20.00 gold-piece exclusively that went out-of-circulation in the early 1930's and most Americans, as a result, have never seen one. Very nice coin set!

The first person mentioned on this thread, the man posing as a retired special-forces officer, was actually a Vietnam veteran and depending on what he *actually did* as an in-country E-1, he might be a hero in his own right. I' d like to give him a break so-to-speak. Plenty of legitimate veterans violate the Stolen Valor Act...someone who missed the cut-off time for the National Defense Service Medal by a few days or weeks and wears one with their other decorations anyways (if they have any) and someone who poses as a CMOH recipient are two different things in my book.

"Oh you would be very surprised. " Believe it or not, at our local county historical society we have a large, round-barrel WWI machine gun in semi-permanent storage. It's very long, it's very heavy and it's European-that's all I know, didn't really pay attention to it when I was helping catalogue items since it had been tagged and registered in the museum computer database already and guns aren't my thing per se. If the museum/library people hadn't tried to sell their gun in Massachusetts, I doubt they would have been molested by all the federal red-tape.

Do you collect tractor related things as well? It's a very nice calendar - fairly rare too. I've never seen one *quite* like it. In 1944, rubber-tires on new farm tractors and machinery were still banned for the duration and the image of the machine in the photo has rubber tires on it BUT it's a representation of a farmer on a tractor so they got around the regulatory law by not actually showing an image of a new Farmall with rubber on it being offered for-sale - but whomever happened to walk into the dealership would have made the mental connection...no one by the mid-40's wanted a new tractor on steel, talk about old-fashioned (even by 1940's US standards). Bumpy as hell too. You calendar is worth some money. Peanuts compared to your German items, probably 100 to 150$ if you found the right guy. I would love to see a close-up sometime. -Andrew

Hey Dave, nice collection but what kind of calendar is that in post # 14? It looks like it's dated September 1944. Is that an advertising piece for Farm Bureau or maybe (long-shot) International Harvestor-Farmall? Oddly enough I collect advertising items for old farm machinery and farm-related "things" so it caught my eye. -Andrew

My grandfather was commissioned in the spring of 1954 in the United States Army, served 4 years active and 2 years reserve and was discharged in 1960. The only medal listed on his DD-214 is the National Defense Service Medal-and he was an O-3 when he got out.

Hey everyone, this could be some-sort of private purchase Turkish War Medal for non-combattants. That would make sense to me since the TWM was awarded to non-combattants on a white-ribbon with two thin red stripes. This is my venture on this piece. The half-moon looks very fat compared to the one I have and the ones I have seen.

Neat stuff, reminds me of "A Farewell to Arms." I have very little knowledge in regards to Italian ribbons,etc but shouldn't there be a WWI Victory Medal ribbon somewhere?

This website has a lot of famous military people in it-from all nations and periods. Very useful.

Was the d.R. designation left-off of award documents at some point in the war? I ask this because I have a few for reservists myself that state their rank as simply X after a certain point but on earlier documents to the same individuals their rank is given as X d.R.

I have two books with the 30.1. award date, one for a Police Oberwachtmeister (B.1883) who got the KVKII w/X on that date and another for a Korvettenkapitain d.R. who got the KVK1w/X on 30.1.1945. I had suspected something along those lines with that particular date as well but wasn't sure. The 20.4 and 30.1. award dates in the books that I have and the ones that I have seen online at various places have all been either 1944 or 1945 bestowals. I've yet to see one personally that was prior to 1944. It's a neat way of collecting. I sold off most of my collection in 2002 and I kept all my documents relating to this area and I've bought a few more since. I average 4 or 5 books per year. I try to keep it limited to officers of field rank on up but I don't have any Generals or Admirals YET mainly because I'm too cheap to break-down and pay the money for them. The flag-rank books tend to be jammed with all the entries the owner could place in them but usually aren't all-inclusive from what I've seen with many of the minor awards being left-out, things such as the Honor Cross 1914-1918 or long-service decorations, etc. Imperial entries tend to get overlooked by people, which is alright by me so long as I'm collecting them.

I did a search through the old topics for what I was looking for-with no luck. I'm new here so maybe this has been discussed before but... I have a small collection of Soldbuches and Wehrpasses that I have accumulated and yes, I' ve narrowed it down to basically books for older gentlemen who served in WWI and got called-up for WWII. That's what I collect anymore. I've noticed one odd thing, many veterans of WWI seem to not have detailed their Imperial decorations in their soldbuches during WWII which has always made me wonder if not detailing them was acceptable to regulation. For example, I have two soldbuches for Luftwaffe Flak Majors, one a reservist with none of his Imperial stuff listed but with a picture of him CLEARLY wearing a 6 piece ribbon bar with the usual Imperial stuff and another soldbuch for a man of the same rank and same comparable area of service who lists EVERYTHING he got during WWI, even his Hungarian and Bulgarian War Service commemoratives he received in 1940. So...what's the deal with this? Anyone else notice this? I've noticed this mainly with officer books with the enlisted men called back for WWII generally listing everything. This isn't something that was limited to lower-grade officers either it seems. I have a book for a Luftwaffe Colonel born in 1892 who only listed his three meager wartime (1939-1945) decorations in his book. Another observation that I have made (and speaking of my under-decorated Colonel's book) is in regards to the War Merit Cross 1st Class with Swords. I have books five, count em' five books for men who received the KVK1 w/Swords on 20.4.1944. I'm thinking this had nothing to do with any individual acts of non-combattant valor but was some-sort of moral-booster thing with the award being given out on Hitler's B-Day for accumulated acts of service-especially with the condition of Germany at that stage of the war. The five books I have are mainly LW, 2 Majors, 1 Major d. R. and 1 full Colonel but... This isn't limited to the Luftwaffe by any means, I have a soldbuch for a Major d. R. in the Army who was born in 1891 but lists only his WWII decorations in his soldbuch but in his matching Wehrpass, which I have, he lists EVERYTHING... AND he got the KVKIw/X on 20.4.1944. Any thoughts are appreciated.