Gold Party Pin Guy

Very nice!

OOOPS! In too much of a hurry and remembered your code wrong between page and post. Forget that last post. M3/40/38 is Zieh-, Press- und Stanzwerk GmBH, Zwintschoena b. Halle. Last number is the date.

M3/40/38 - Maker: Gebrueder Cosak, Neheim, 1940. Nice pole top!

Little thing I noticed - the middle badge is the infamous "Heil Hitler, Ludendorf v. Grafe" badge, but Erich Ludendorff's name is spelled wrong in the period catalogue! Notice it is missing the final "f"! So much for period references.

Thought I'd post the Steinhauer & Luck catalogue page with the various sizes offered.

Without an RZM logo makes them pre-1935, when the RZM marking became mandatory and the first license numbers were assigned. Because there is no "M1" prefix to the 63, that makes this badge from the first half of 1935.

The KGB archives were "privatized" and spun off into the Institute For Economic Security - a for profit corporate intelligence service. Here is one of their (our) documents shown on their website as a sample of what you can get if you pay enough: http://www.ies.ru/eng/special_archive/samples/3s006.html. They have told us that we can get copies of our documents for a hefty price - many thousands of dollars for photocopies, plus a substantial "research fee". There is no other way to access the documents, and many of them have no "intelligence" value - but great historic and cultural significance. They have a lot of interesting things in their collection that properly belong in western libraries and museums, since that is where all of it was taken from. As for this portrait, I thought it looked like General Edouard-Jean-Baptiste Milhaud: http://www.napoleon-series.org/research/co.../c_milhaud.html, but apparently it is not him. Not to bore, but it is interesting that the Order of Saint Joachim was also worn by Horatio Nelson at Trafalgar. He was made a Knight Grand Commander in 1802 and received the Royal Warrant to wear it on his admiral's uniform (in the non-French style of breast cross). Later portraits show him wearing it and the embroidered version is preserved on his "Trafalgar coat" displayed in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. You can see it here: http://www.stjoachimorder.org/nelson.htm. Is that Philip J Haythornwaite? How would I get in touch?

Thanks Barry, I'd love to find such a list. I happen to be the Deputy Grand Master of the modern Order of Saint Joachim (hence my avatar). The Order's records from the early years (1755-1850) are either lost or in the archives of the former KGB. They were captured as war booty by the Red Army from the possessions of Carl Eduoard, Duke of Saxe-Coburg, who was president of the German Red Cross under Hitler. They are still there (now the IES), and all but inaccessible. Other records may be in France or Naples, as when Joachim Murat he was appointed Grand Duke of Berg and Cleves on March 15, 1806, he assumed the possessions of several German princlings, which included (he believed) the Grand Mastership of our Order, which was held by the Count of Leiningen. He was never recognized as the legitimate Grand Master, but awarded the Order of Saint Joachim to many French generals and holders of the Legion d'honneur, who he decreed automatically qualified. I wondered if Napoleon received one as a courtesy. In the portrait below by Gerard, he is wearing the variation breast star of the Order of Saint Joachim, visible just off the bottom of the portrait.

Can anyone identify this General de Brigade? He is wearing wearing the L?gion d'honneur (Commandeur, Chevalier), Ordre de St Louis, Ordre du Lys, and the Knight Cross of the Order of Saint Joachim and the breast star of the same Order, probably awarded by Joachim Murat when he was Duke of Berg and Cleves (1806-08). Thanks for any help.

Likely made in USA, probably for the skinhead / Hitler fan club market. I think there is a Rommel one as well I've seen on eBay or ePier.

Thanks Pete - that is helpful. Yours in the solid backed Honour Award made by Assmann (M1/17). You can see how the underside of the wings and the wreath features are a little softer than the other solid above. A look at the Assmann catalogue (1939-40) shows this version. The hollow backed ones are thought to be pre-1936 when it was made an official Honour Award of the NSDAP and reissued in solid, RZM'd form. Pete - you're thinking of Mickey Huffmann's book that says the S should be directly over the R in this version. I'm not sure that holds true for pre-1936 hollow badges. Another give away for earlier fakes is cutting off the end of a swastika arm.

I have to say my feelings are the opposite on the two badges Nick shows - I like the bronze hollow back and don't like the solid one. The solid one has odd leaves generally with wider and rougher inside leaves than I have ever seen on an original badge and the eagle's wings are sharper. I like to see bubbling on the finish, but the pin looks modern in the picture and there is no maker or RZM mark on the reverse. Solid badges should have RZM M1/17 on the reverse. The bronze one I've seen before with traces of a silver wash, and generally conforms more to early period examples shown in the literature in overall look. As for the one that started this thread, I've just started seeing these RZM / Ges. Gesch. marked hollow backed badges. Maybe they've been around for a long time, but I hadn't seen them before about a year ago. I am suspicious but can't say for sure one way or the other. I don't get a good feeling from this one just based on the rough finish, but it could be the photo. In any event, nicer quality ones can be found and I'd wait for a better one to come along. Just my 2 cents.

I'll add one more fake SS stickpin - marked RZM M1/129. Real SS enamels were never RZM marked.

Here's the reverse of a sub badge with a "M9/25" RZM mark. M9 was for political tinnies, and war badges were never RZM marked.

Here's a fake DJ shooting badge with the tell-tale oval pinplate and one of the favourite fakers' RZM codes.

Here's the famous multi-coloured "Otto Hoffmann" HJ fantasy member pins. They come in all colours, and are all bad. HJ badges should only be red and white, and there was no such maker as Otto Hoffmann.

Here's the famous fantasy "Civil SS Pin" - a much larger version of the stickpin with white enamel runes.

Note that von dem Boch has loops in the 1st photo for the GPB in the position he is wearing it in the 2nd photo. Looks like he changed his military style one for a pinback in the top photo.

Looks like one of the screw-back jobs that have been coming out of Poland. They are very colourful and inventive, but as said, a complete fantasy.

Thank Robin - I ought to use some of those books on my shelf...

Police marine units responsible for patrolling waterways. By the way, my eagle came out of Austria 30 years ago. If you listen closely you can hear the Blue Danube Waltz playing.

As I said, the quality of the embroidery is amazing - I count 4 different kinds of bullion thread.

Here's what I have assumed is a Wasserpolizei arm eagle in my collection, beautifully executed in silver bullion on a dark navy wool base.

There is no complete list of the 22,000+ Gold Party badge holders. One was maintained by the NSDAP Treasurer's office (Franz X. Schwarz), but it was apparently destroyed in 1945. All lists today have been assembled from partial lists, like the SS Dienstalterslisten, Gau lists and other sources. Individual numbers can be found in the manual NSDAP membership card index of about 9 million names in the Berlin Document Center. Sorry, your number isn't in my partial list.

Here's the enamel member badge.