Destruction

FYI...a silver one

Brian, The one with black cord is described by Klietmann. Since it was done based on his writings to Pfeffer himself, I hope we can trust him in this very case. I was thinkin about silver grade as well first, but we did compare it to a silver one, and no--it's black. Does not look like oxidation. Best! Serg

Hi Eric, Hmmmm...what makes you so sure it's a Randow cross? Not Awaloff , f.e.? It's a private purchase anyway as it does not look like any known type used for official awarding IMO.

Did you mean silver cord? This one for sure is black, we compared it to silver one closely. Yep, the price was good, congrats! I had a huge desire to buy it myself, to be honest

Andreas, It was pretty complicated. Fangschnur of VII. Armee-Korps (FK Duesseldorf, Lichtschlag etc) had only 2 classes, usual green and green with additional silver cord (for 3 and 9 months). Pfeffer went further. He used two classes, but also added one more, with black cord, making it in 3 grades (for FK Pfeffer only). Best! Serg

Very nice, Brian, I'm glad this one went to a good hands Here is mine, the highest (3rd) grade with black cord.

Wow, Andreas, you seems to be an endless source of scarce Freikorps paper treasures Thanx for showing!

Nothing to add, Brian is right, it's FK Buelow arm shild. Best! Serg

Andreas, Very, veeery good Not that often you can see Baltenkreuz certificate issued not by Baltischer National Ausschuss. I've seen 3 of these and all were issued by Detachment Poensgen...interesting. Also IC2 certificate from Freikorps unit is unusual to say the least, congratulations! Is there any chance to see a close up picture of sleeve shild from the last foto? Thanx in advance!

Let's corrupt this forum as well Hope it will gain more interest here... some of mine.

Here are mine, Marine Brigade von Loewenfeld. Interesting to see what's happened to this Leutnant zur See in future http://www.geocities.com/~orion47/WEHRMACHT/KRIEGSMARINE/Konteradmirals/GADOW_HANS-JOACHIM.html

Hi Chris, Yep, the maker is still not identified for this badge. As for feathers, they may vary: minimum is 3, maximum--5

Hi Brian, Thanx for making it clear. I do apologize if I was too brutally ironic in some posts. Back to the object of discussion. A question--does any of you gents have ever seen an award list to this medal? I mean , it's a kinda usual to see Eiserne Division and SSVK medals urkunde, but I have never seen one for this medal. Have you?

Hi Chris, Yep, "Latvian Fakes" was a term used for some well made Imperial and 3rd Reich fakes some time ago, supposedly produced in here. I'm not happy with this name, but I take it easy Anyway, this term never included Freikorps items.

Hi Brian, Except mentioning Chichikalov as a maker of infamous copies (some of which are even maker marked as such) I do not recall myself telling about any other FK decorations reproduced, especially in Baltics. Anyway, can you pls check again the post on which I reacted? I do not care if someone is telling that fakes are produced in Russia, Latvia, Thailand or USA, but what you wrote was a clear attempt to connect collectors from mentioned countries with increasing quantity of fakes coming from this locations--that's how it looked for me. Does it mean that in your opinion i provide items from my collection to fakers? Or some other guys do?

WTH dude? Thanx a lot for good words, I'm coming exactly from Baltics and collecting Freikorps. And since I know only one other guy from Estonia with the same area of interest, I believe this addressed to us? Amazing. Would be nice to hear some comments. I can also add that the best books up to date about FK awards are written by Russian author Konstantin Nikolayev, and they really helped many people to get the right items for collection, while most of the crap sold on ebay (including the medal in this thread which has nothing to do with original medal even designwise) is coming from Germany. With best regards, "Those from the Baltic States"

Hi Gents, Just a small announce...For those of you who do not afraid of Russian language. "Gallipoli Star (Eiserner Halbmond)" by K.Nikolayev. Russian language. Hardcover, 470 pages, full colored. The best book on the subject at the moment. 167 badges from 55 different makers are described and classified, plus miniatures, award lists, bars, ribbon bars etc. As an additional clause the book includes a graphic table of designs for easier comparison and identification of maker. Some pics.

And the second one--a small group of items recently sold to one of my German friends. It was shown on WAF, so you probably seen this one. What is really interesting is that it has a counterpart reverse, unlike yours..

Hey Brian, That's a really hard one to discuss. I can only show some pictures..first is an image from Rainer Schmitt article about subject (no reverse, sorry).

Hi Chris, Yep, they are absolutely the same. There is one 1st class cross currently for sale at Winklers site, with the same issue.

Hi Brian, So Jim sold his medal bar to you? Damn, I'm envy!!! This is a great addition to your collection. As for your question--it was already asked twice on German and Russian forums, without any serious answers...

This is Erinnerungszeichen der Deutschen Legion.http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Legion_(1919) Established in 1920 by veteran organization of this unit. I have this badge as a part of the group of ex-member of the Legion.

Are you sure it is Todt? Do you have any info about his Freikorps past in Upper Silesia? Moreover, I clearly see (for the first time, thanx for showing!) Freikorps Aulock badge! So the guy on a foto very well might be Hubertus von Aulock himself, he was NSKK-Brigadeführer later. Actually, he looks like Aulock

Hi Chris, Congratulations on a great group including beautiful document!!! Yes, this one is for SE 2nd class. Docs for Oberland Silesian medal look different.

Here we go...