Hauptmann

Hi all, I wondered if perhaps, by chance, anyone might have a spare length of Silesian 2nd class medal ribbon they'd be willing to part with? I put in the request in the "wanted" section but so far no replies. Thought I'd pop the request here as well just in case. Can be real or modern production... I'm not picky. If you have one please PM and let me know how much and we'll go from there. Mucho thanks in advance! Dan :cheers:

Hi Christian, Here's one I have coming. My first miners award. Not sure if early or late. I tried to research here and on SAF although your post is the only one here and there was only one over there so not a ton of info. Pics are the sellers (okudinova) and used with his kind permission. Thanks Vitaly!!!! According to the one on SAF there were a bunch of copies about two years ago but they didn't have serial numbers and the screw posts were epoxied to the badge. Serial number is 1595. Vitaly says these were established in 1962. He calls it the "Honored Miner". Over at SAF they say it's "Honorary Miner". Hoping more info starts to come out on these and other miner related awards. I like quite a few of them and love the enamels on this one. Most seem to have somewhat of an image of part of the obverse that shows on the reverse, but mine doesn't. I've seen them both with and without the blacking on the obverse as well. As always opinions are most welcome. Dan :cheers:

Mucho thanks! If it's okay give me a little bit on this one as I got talked into covering at the work I just left over a week ago so between the route tonight and getting what sleep I can and that today from about 4:30 p.m. cst on till late tonight I'll be over there at the gulag. After that I'll have some time to concentrate and come up with something (knock on wood). Or I'll be happy to pass one along again if that works better. Let me know. Dan :cheers:

Hi all, Okay... I'm going to go way out on a limb here and take a crack at this one. It fits the initials and seems to answer the question. So here's hoping. The concept is called "Space Bridges"... the linking of faraway places via satellite technology. It was used as a show in the late 80's. The co-hosts were Vladimir Posner and Peter Jennings... hence VP and PJ. Here is a link to the article I found on this: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...754C0A961948260 A short bio of Posner: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Posner And a short one of Jennings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jennings Again, everything seems to fit... no idea if it's the correct answer or not. I don't really remember these shows although I very much remember Vladimir being on Phil Donahue's show tons of times and what impressed me was the fact that Vladimir speaks perfect English with a New York accent unlike all the other Soviet representatives I'd ever heard. Anyhow... fingers crossed! Dan :cheers:

And last but not least the reverse under the pin: Again note the matching mark on the badge itself from the end of the pin where they meet when the pin is in the closed position. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that our learned members can "pin" down whether this is indeed a gold... but either way I'm very happy with my newest addition. Many thanks! Dan :cheers:

Pin detail: Pin up/reverse: Note in front of the hinge on the badge reverse a matching mark to the end of the pin where it sits when in the closed position.

Pin detail re: makers mark: There also seems to be that line of gold on the pin and in the makers mark.

Reverse:

Obverse detail: It appears that (especially one near the helmet bolt) there's a few very tiny spots of gold left and also at least three of the leaves on the right seem to have a slight goldish tint to them, especially in the sunlight. I'm just hoping I'm not seeing what I'd like to see and that it's actually there. Some areas of the badge do seem to have a slight gold tint to them in the scans as well.

Hi all, Here's my latest... I bought it as being a "silver" but upon asking the advice of several of a learned members they seem to feel it may just be a gold that has had all the finish sucked in by the zinc. It arrived today and I just finished the scans. So here it is for all to see. I'd love to see it confirmed as a gold since my gold I bought so long ago turned out to be a bad one. As you'll see in the scans it's a maker mark of 4 on the pin which is for Steinhauer & L?ck. So without further ago... here's the newest member of my wound badge family. Obverse:

Thanks guys! I've been away from this for too long. Too busy working but I'm pulling back a bit... changing one of my jobs and hoping to have more time for such enjoyable things from here on out. I'd like to pass this one on to Lapa (Marc) if he'd like to run with it as I'll still be under the gun till at least this coming Friday. But very happy to be close to being back in the saddle again. Dan

The name of the city is Kirkenes in Norway. Dan

Thanks guys! I feel a billion percent better now and I'm definitely glad I got it. Don't suppose either of you have even a rough idea on value? Just kind of curious as to about how well I did. Again if uncomfortable posting a value pop me an E and I'll be happy to let you know what I got it for. And by the way Rick, that's a beautiful bar! Many thanks for posting it and for the additional info re: the construction. Till I tried looking I had no idea how little info was out there on these. Only things I could find were a couple of the higher grades and a cased West German version. Dan

Many thanks Rick! Hearing this from you makes me feel tons better. Of course I'm still open to any and all comments from the membership. But I do feel very good about this one. Dan

Side view: As you can see... the center medallion on the obverse is made as part of the medal and is not a separate piece. Sadly I could not find any mention of this in Jack's book one way or the other re: this particular medal. So not sure if this is correct for the construction of this award or not. It's really my one and only concern as the size is right, it seems to have the age on both the medal and the enamel. Even the enamel damage seems correct if it had been worn on a bar at one point or another and knocked against other awards over time. Plus all the copies I've seen so far seems to be of the nazi period awards and also they seem to leave the backs in metal and not enameled as on this example. I found this quite by accident while surfing on Ebay. It had seven minutes to go, one bid and at minimum. I bid a bit higher and managed to get it at just $3 above the minimum. To say that I'm okay if it turns out to be a copy is an understatement. But if it's original as I hope then I think I did exceedingly. How well I don't know as I've not been able to discover what an original of this type would run. So hoping also that one or more members may be able to give me an idea of value (please feel free to PM me if you're uncomfortable stating such in the post.). Once I won it that night I ran down to the bunker to check my ribbon stash as I seemed to remember having the proper ribbon and lo and behold I had a nice length. So here's a shot with her all dressed up: Many thanks in advance, Dan I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that someone out there knows these well enough to give me a thumbs up or down and if up an idea of value. Any comments will be deeply appreciated.

Ring detail: Obverse enamel damage detail: Reverse enamel damage detail:

Reverse: Obverse center detail:

Hi all, I'm hoping one of our members may be able to help out with this one. I happened to spot it on Ebay a week or so ago, lucked out and won it for what I think is a very good price and I'm just hoping it's a good one. But as I've not specialized in Red Cross awards and only have a couple of copies so far the only thing I have to compare it to is reference books as I could not find one of this type either here at GMIC or on-line in general. It matches the pic and information in John Angolia's For Fuhrer and Fatherland Political and Civil Awards of the Third Reich, page 109 and in fact physically fits the picture to a T size wise. I've just received it in todays mail and just finished doing scans on my trusty Epson (Hi Rick! ) so I'm hoping the pics will tell the tale: Obverse:

Here's another addition... a cased Reservists medal in bronze. No biggie... except instead of being in the usual plastic case it's in one of the older style presentation cases. I don't remember seeing them in these. Does anyone know more about this. Also did they put each grade in the same type of case or is each case a different color? I also just added another full set of these Reservist medals in bronze, silver and gold. Plus I have another bronze coming so I've no got at least three full sets plus this extra cased bronze. Funny thing is I never really thought much of these until I saw one in person. Guess I got hooked as just like my OGPW's they're breeding. Dan

Hi all, Here's one of my latest... the Medal for Merit in Peoples Control in Gold (Medaille f?r Verdienste in der Volkskontrolle der DDR): With luck I'll be able to finish the set some day. Here's a couple of better pics I found on the web including the reverse: Also, seems there's an earlier type: Dan

Assuming there are several other pages to post... just have to wait till I have it in hand. I especially love the nice leatherette binding with the gold inscription and insignia... and the photos of the officers with their decorations. Does anyone else have similar albums (yearbooks) in their collections? If so I for one would love to see them. Dan

Does anyone know which academy badge would be the match to the one pictured here? I may already have it... if not I'd love to get one to put with the album.

Hi all, Been waiting to get this one for just over a month. It's off Ebay and when it was originally listed I didn't have the extra $$'s to spare. I wrote the seller and asked if they were planning to relist it and after a few days they finally said they were. So I waited... and waited... and waited. Finally I wrote again and I get the impression they'd forgotten all about it. But they popped it back on auction. Waited another week and finally it came up early this afternoon. I'd have gotten it even cheaper but of course someone just had to pop on in the last second and make a bid... (and I know... it's the name of the game) so went up a bit but still got it for a steal I think. These are the sellers (AAG International) photos. I'm guessing it'll be here early this coming week but wanted to go ahead and post for comments. So now, without further ado...