Peter C

John I have just got back from a holiday in Tasmania Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post. Regards Peter

Gents Does any one know what the term "Acid Test" on US insignia means. With regard to jewellery I have seen the term used in reference to nitric acid testing of jewellery to see if it is silver. My thoughts are that it refers to insignia that is made from or is plated in silver that is less than 92.5% pure (Stirling). Regards Peter

Dave Thanks for the information. I thought the small pad was early 1950's. Three of the awards I saw were still in their cases and all cases looked the same and appeared to be early post war and not the type that you see today. Regards Peter

I was in the US last week on buisness and had the chance to handle and see several Medal's of Honour,three army and one airforce. Of the three army MOH's two had a large rectangular central ribon box and one had a small rectangular ribbon box. The ribon box is what I call the central part of the neck ribon that has the small stars. What I wanted to know is why the difference. Different maker or is the one with the smaller box an earlier piece? Regards Peter C

Thanks for the feed back. From what I have read, and correct me if I am wrong, my friends father must have been involved in the mobilisation of the army 1939 to 1940,tookpart in the fighting against Germany in 1940 and then went on to Indonesia after the war. Regards Peter

Jeff Thanks for the information. Is there any web sites that tell you more about the medals and what you recieved them for. Regards Peter

Medal 3

Medal2

Can any one tell me what these Dutch medals are. They belonged to a friend's father but the father never told him what they were for. Regards Peter C

Hi Johnsy You may be right. Any way time will tell and if need be with a bit of Ausi inginuity we could always make MTU diesel power packs to fit the Abrams. Regards Peter

I to saw a show on cable showing how they rebuild the M1Abrams. Of interest was the gas turbines that suffer greatly from dust and have to constantly be rebuilt. Not a problem when you have billions of dollars in you defence budget and can set up a special factory to rebuild the engines and have plenty of spares on the shelf, but for Australia I think it will be a problem. If the engines start to wear out fast, as they will, our army will only be able to drive them on the road or on a rainy day when there is no dust around. The M1 is a very good tank but expensive to run and in my way of thinking Australia would probably have been better off staying with the Leopard with its diesel engine. Regards Peter C

Douglas Thanks for the pics of your badge. This pin / hinge arrangement is what I think is shown in Detlev's catalogue and it is good to get some nice close up's like you have posted. Regards Peter

You are right The seller had many nice and sometimes rare EK1's, Mike bought 1 or 2 of them. His prices were also reasonable not give away but quite a bit less than dealer. He is also a nice guy and they all came from his own collection. When I say that many of his badges were sustpect I was refering to some of his aviation badges that he had for sale at the time I bought my Junker. He had several Bavarial badges all which had the semi circular scoop around the hinge. From what I have read these are contensions, same as the half moon and crown marked Junker badges that many collectors and dealers say are OK and the others say they are bad, so I decided to leave them alone. Regards Peter

I have found that you you can be lucky especially when the images are not that good. For example I picked up this Junker pilots badge a few weeks ago from e-bay for $700 US, not cheap but not dealer price either. My friend Mike K and I both thought is was worth buying as we felt that it had a high probability of being genuine, and it was. The seller also had several Imperial badges for sale, many of them we thought were suspect so that was probably another reason why there were no other bids. When it arrived I was able to compare it to Mikes example with very good results. We also found that the original owner had scratched his name on the back as well which was an added bonus. Regards Peter

Again Thankyou every one for replying to me questions, some nice information that I wasn't really expecting. Regards Peter

Looking at the obverses the badge from Weitze does appear to have much better details of the soldier. Regards Peter

And the other

Thankyou for the feed back on the badges. Here are the pictures of the obverse. Regards Peter

Ed No not at all. I have seen some very nice pieces come up on e-bay over the years, and many fakes on dealers sites so the trick is to know what you are going to buy and do your homework. That is what I am trying to do by discussing this badge. Friends of mine and myself have picked up some bargains over the years from e-bay. Regards Peter

Gaffken Thanks for the comments. I saw this badge a few weeks ago on e-bay and down loaded the pics for reference. You see a lot of very bad copies come up for sale but this one I thought looked at least half decent and worth of a closer look however I see what you mean about the hinge and lack of detail on the skulls so like you said one for the fake files.From memory sold for around $400 to $500 US so one to watch out for. For me I would only buy one that was a textbook Junker. Regards Peter

There seems to many variations to these badges and I know that they are highly faked. I am trying to learn what type of pin set ups are the known originals and what type are the known fakes. I have a couple of pics with what looks like the same badge but with differnt pin set ups and would appreciate any feed back regarding which set up is a known original. From what I have seen many originals appear to have the double wire pin like the Weitze example shown.

Thanks Chip for the feedback. I know what you mean by the apple green so no need to take photos. Regards Peter

Came across this WW1 tank badge that sold the other day on e-bay. Was curious to see what people think original or fake. Not one I have seen before but may have actually been original. Unfortunatly these are the only photos I have. Regards Peter

Hopefully should be a simple question. What colour should original WW1 issue M16 helmets be? I have seen one locally for sale that is a light green coulor. Not sure if the should be dark green or grey etc. Regards Peter

Gordon Thanks very mutch for the responce. It was a badge I was possibly thinking about purchasing but will leave it were it is as it is a badge not high on my wants list. It is quite interesting that you do get these marks on the back of Maybauer Selesian eagles though. Regards Peter