medalnet

those Wagner type stars of all grades always do.

This is interesting. My Grand-grand father used the exact same Bezard compass during WWI. I still have it looks exactly the same.

Christophe, unfortunately those pieces are not in my collection anymore. As I mentioned, one can not collect everything....unfortunately

David, no, that would be the Waldeck "Long Service Cross", which came in 3 grades, this being the lowest grade. There is a fully enameled one and a neck badge as pictured on the book cover, middle. The medal on the lower left corner is either the Arts & Science medal or Part of the House order 1st model. By the way, Tim Eriksen has these books for sale in the US.

...and the matching cross: [attachmentid=24320]

...and of course the reverse, please check out the way the swords are attached: [attachmentid=24319] This mechanisum applies to all other Sword on Ring - Prussian orders as well.

...here we go: [attachmentid=24318]

The book is truly a must even for those of us not to interest in Waldeck ?o ne of the best researched topics. The book is basically the reworked issue which was printed as one of the very first monographs on a single topic like this. [attachmentid=24282]

...and one more. One can collect everything. [attachmentid=24260]

...same here: [attachmentid=24259]

...well, I use to own this one, but....at least the picture remains: [attachmentid=24258]

...and a spare silver gilt oak leaf:

...and a nice golden 2nd class:

...actually, this gets you directly to the medal fair dates: Medal Fair Schedule

Try one of the upcoming medal fairs in Germany. Some honest dealers may still sell them as fakes for that amount of money. You will find a complete list on the BDOS e.V. web page at: www.bdos.org

This new version of the famous PlM is really popular on ebay. Those surfaced a couple of years ago and were actually sold in Germany as fakes for about 500 to 1000 Euros. Certainly the best fake yet. I was told that those pieces were ! made in Spain, but the tooling broke which explains that one can not get them anymore from the source. I am sure most of you have the book by S.Previtera? There is a PlM pictured that looks mighty close to the one we see so often lately. I need to scan it and post it tonight..... Anyway, this is a fake!!!

No, the bow just indicates the promotion. Regardless of crown or else...

Isn't this actually a police officer?

I agree with that statement. The letter are normally polished and do not how those fine ridges and grooves on their surface. The bachground pattern is something never seen before.

..and this is how it looks like in the book. It is more a quick reference: [attachmentid=23780]

I am positive everybody realised the recent flood of rare, but also common, bars for the 3 different colonial commemorative medals. Yet, I like to post a good example of how the most recent fakes look like. [attachmentid=23545] Please check the following post to see a variaty of orginal pieces: China bars

My little contribution for this topic: [attachmentid=23466]

Looks more like an Oldenburg officer cross to me...

Fellow members, I realy appreciate your input and your sharing your personal thoughts and experience with all of us. I felt it was time to stand up and vent a little bit. Since this is an open forum we will always have to deal with those that just want to make the quick buy, yet... I do believe that helping is the basic engine on our area of collecting. Everybody starting up needs a trustworthy mentor. It is certainly easier today to find information then in the old days without internet and just a few books arround, but every beginner needs special attention since the more information today can sometimes be misleading. I also think that even those who might be in for that one ride may catch on and possibly develop an interest that in the end makes our comunity even stronger and more fun.

Dear Les, I am in full agrement of what you said. Yet it is obvious fact, that the same few fake models appear over and over on eBay again. Should this not be clue enough for most people? (Of course one needs to pay attention over a periode of time, which some people do not invest into. For ebay I would say 2 month is sufficient to figure out that it is always the same stuff.) Rartiy is indeed not the measure, as I can tell from my own experience. As for the case...some Prussian cases are multifunctional.