Komtur

This is a question of statistics and likelyhood. There is indeed a danger to be killed by a down falling roof tile, if you leave your house. But we all feel quite safe, leaving our houses . If I found the same version of an Oak leaf on ten different order bars from ten different places/collections, some of them coming directly from the family of the awarded person, there is a very small chance, that some crazy guy had all these bars in his dirty hands. And why should someone do that? There is not such a big difference in the value of a bar with or without Oak Leaf. If I decide, that a combination of awards on a 1870ies bar is interesting for me, the price I am willing to pay, depends not on this question. If we consider, that besides all this, the feared setting happend, shouldn´t we find not so obvious differences in preservation? In the end: variant 5 is very likely a fake - I found this version only on ONE bar. Variant 10 is to be found in a AWS-catalogue of 1908 - I compiled until now EIGHT examples of this version on different order bars Best regards, Komtur.

That is right. For this kind of view, I only "count" items on order bars. For a later intended publication I will include these other versions too. Regards, Komtur.

... and belongs to the variant 2. Now we found 10 examples of this version on order bars Thanks ! Regards, Komtur.

The left one is not definitely to assign to one variant because of the poor details. The right Oak Leaf is very likely variant 3. But ist seems, it is on a single ribbon/cross and not on an order bar. Therefore I can´t count it for the statistics above. But thanks anyway

current summary There seems to be a lot of different versions/makers (20 and more) of the Oak Leaf for the Iron Cross 2nd class 1870. Some of them can be detected presumably as original made for the awarded person, because we found these versions three and more times on apparently old order bars (Variant 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 13). One version (Variant 5) seems to be a modern copy. Interestingly none of these versions is exactly like the example officially made and stored from the Prussian General Ordens Kommission. The reason for this circumstance seems to be the fact, that the Oak Leaves had to be purchased privately and were not displayed by the General Ordens Kommission. So far until now. Please support this research by pictures of Oak Leaves from order bars! Thanks and Regards, Komtur.

Variant 20 once found on order bar

Variant 19 once found on order bar

Variant 18 once found on order bar

Variant 17 once found on order bar

Variant 16 twice found on order bars It is shown twice in the basic publication of Previtera.

Variant 15 twice found on order bars

Variant 14 once found on order bars

Variant 13 5 examples could be found on order bars This version is shown in the basic publications of Wernitz (twice) and Heyde (3 examples).

Variant 12 once found on order bar This version is shown once in the basic publication of Wernitz.

Variant 11 twice found on order bars

Variant 10 8 examples could be found on order bars It is shown additionaly in each case in the basic publications of Wernitz (twice) and Previtera (once). The maker seems to be AWS, because it was shown in his catalogue (Thanks Trevor!).

Variant 9 twice found on order bars It is shown additionaly in each case once in the basic publications of Wernitz and Previtera.

Variant 8 once found on an order bar

Variant 7 Twice found on order bars.

Variant 6 6 examples could be found on order bars. It is shown additionaly once in the basic publication of Wernitz.

Variant 5 Once found on an order bar This version seems to be a fake (see post 3!) Unfortunately shown twice in the basic publication of Previtera.

Variant 4 once found on an order bar (in a museum)

Variant 3 7 examples of this version could be found on order bars. It is shown additionaly in each case once in the basic publications of Heyde and Wernitz.

Variant 2 10 examples of this version could be found on order bars.

Variant 1 3 examples of this version could be found on order bars.