VtwinVince

Colin, that sounds amazing. We know that early cases alone are in the 300-pound range. So, nobody else has ever found anything interesting on ebay? Hard to believe.....

Holy cow Wild Card, that is incredible. Can we see the reverse please?

Just out of curiosity I thought I'd start a thread on the best items people have found on eBay. My current front-runner came in today: cased PKO2 with 60 Jubilee button by Wagner, with the most intricately sewn neck ribbon I've seen. According to Ludvigsen only 24 awarded until 1913. Would like to hear about other people's finds.

This combo is not common, but I like the construction of this spange.

I've tried to have a PKO2mX restored by my jeweler, but he won't touch it, as it would have to be heated in the re-enameling process, with potentially disastrous results.

Funny that they spelled it wrong. My grandfather had a similar bar made for 'Dixmude'.

Mensch, eine richtig seltene Sache.

Agreed, I have numerous examples, none of which have this or any other mark on the ring.

Interesting and rather obscure award.

Nice one Beau. I have one on a bar, and think it's an underappreciated item.

Very weird, and why is it on the Hindenburg cross ribbon?

Man, this thing is getting swapped around like some crack-whore......

Very nice, and you don't see many of these, considering the number struck. I've never seen one on a bar.

Very nice spange, I like it. Having said that, I don't know anything about these Bewaehrungsabzeichen.

Great photo, and a good example of how a relatively lowly looking Ordensspange can be held by a high-ranking officer.

I would think the star body alone is worth the price of admission at the moment......

Great spange, especially with the Spangenstueck MEZ.

The core certainly lacks the quality of a period award piece.

Really nice items. Interesting where the silver content is marked on the cross. I have a late war example marked on the bottom arm for silver, also from Wagner. Is the cross solid or hollow?

Update: both the bar and the feldspange passed the black light and thread tests.

Thanks for all the knowledgeable input so far. As a hypothetical question, would this bar make sense with a BMVO4mS? I'm going to do a couple more tests before I decide whether to take this one apart as a parts bar or not.

Notice that the Iron Halfmoon is rotated, so it looks a little strange.

Bernd Doebel also thinks this is a gilded fourth class, so I would defer to the experts. I am puzzled about this, as the medal clearly was not altered recently, and has been on the spange a long time, judging from the wear to the high points. So what do we have here? Certainly not a complete fantasy spange, as most elements make sense, along with the feldspange. A period spange with altered BMVO? Doesn't make sense to me. Are there records from Weiss stating that they never made a third class, or is this just conjecture based on existing examples?

Edit: I got an email from the seller, and he claims that he originally got this group with the mini-spange, which he is trying to locate.

Thanks for the input so far. I have the same feelings about this bar, especially the sewing using different color thread, and the funny combination. I thought this before I bought it, but since I paid a low price, I thought I would take the chance. Having the group in hand, I do not think it is put together, although I am going to do the black light test on it, once I get a new black light this week. I have looked very closely at the BMVO, especially the medallions, and they are a match for other examples of the fourth class which I have. The gilding looks good, with consistent wear to the high points. I am confused by the non-statute order of mounting. It almost looks as if the BMVO and the PKO were switched out at some point, perhaps for higher grades of the orders, but this was not done recently for sure. The ribbon bar looks absolutely correct in construction and wear as well. If this is a forgery, it is the work of a real master. I'm going to send better scans to some other members, so feel free to put them up on this thread for discussion, as I have a compatibility problem with my computer and this site.