Whats this

[Allan]

Please can I have your opinions on this?

Edited August 5, 2005 by ALLAN

[Allan]

reverse

[Guest Rick Research]

It is one of tens of thousands of fakes of the "Hindenburg star," often commonly referred to by sellers as "museum" or "display" copies.

[Wild Card]

Alan -

Rick is right, as usual, but to me, there is an interesting aspect to this particular piece.

The Hindenburg star is a descendent of the ?Bl?cher? star which was created in 1815

(of which there is also an abundance of fakes referred to by sellers as "museum" or

"display" copies). Both are similar in form - a Prussian style eight pointed star upon

which is mounted an 1913 (Bl?cher) or 1914 (Hindenburg) Iron Cross. I believe that

these stars were additions to previously awarded Grand Crosses of the Iron Cross.

Now, it seems that there were about eight Grand Crosses of the 1870 edition of the

Iron Cross awarded; but, as near as I can tell, no stars. The piece shown here clearly

has an 1870 cross on it; so if the above information and assumptions are correct, what

we have is a copy of a piece that never existed. At the same time, while the 1813 and

1914 copies are quite abundant, this is the first 1870 piece/copy I?ve ever seen.

Thanks for sharing - interesting.

Wild Card

Edited August 6, 2005 by Wild Card

[Wild Card]

Sorry, I meant... ?an 1813 (Bl?cher)?...

[Christophe]

Wild Card,

Interesting comments.

Allan,

Where is this piece coming from ? Do you have more details on it ? A better scan ?

Cheers.

Ch.

[Mike K]

Hi,

My first impression on seeing the reverse of this example, in particular the hinge and the way the pin is attached to the hinge, is that the hardware assembly strongly resembles one of the fake Imperial and TR EK1 types that are currently flooding the market. The core detail on the cbverse does not look great either imo - certainly not pre-1900 quality!

Regards

Mike K

PS: found a good match to the pin on a bad DK fake, in case there were any doubts!

Edited September 3, 2005 by Mike K