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    Memellands Annexation Medal


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    Hello gents

    Just spotted this thread and thought I'd contribute to it. I picked up this cased Memel medal many years ago as part of a swap and is one of the few 3rd Reich pieces I have left. I'll try and get some better scans of the obverse and reverse, as the picture I'm adding here was taken with a cheap digital camera a while back.

    The case is identical to the Sudetenland one I have, namely maroon with a gold eagle embossed on the front.

    cheers Jason

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    • 1 year later...

    Bringin' this thread back to life. I can offer two examples that I am convinced are genuine as they are mounted on period bars. Here is one that fits the descrition of "type 3" that Steve posted earlier in the thread. It has the straight G so I think that way of determining real/fake is nonsense.

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    ...and the interesting thing about this medal is that it is maker marked. I have seen this appear faintly in other images before. I tried to take a picture of it through my loupe - it is a bit blurry ('cause the mark is so damn small) but you can definitely see it. It appears to be an H. followed by something else - perhaps an S. - maybe someone else can show a close up example. I also tried to capture the image with my scanner but just couldn't get it.

    This may shed some light on these medals. Who could this maker have been?

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    Here is the bar. It belonged to Maschinenmaaten Gerhard Muswick. I have photocopies of his award documents - they are as follows...

    Spanish Cross in Bronze - 6. Juni, 1939

    Wehrmacht Long Service Cross 4th Class - 1. Juli, 1939

    Memel Medal - 26. Oktober, 1939

    Iron Cross 2nd Class - 29. August, 1940

    Minesweeper Badge - 1. February, 1941

    Edited by Brian R
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    Guest Darrell

    Brian that large bar is a beauty :cheers:

    And the writing on the reverse of the Memel is very unusual. I don't think I've seen one quite like that before. Maybe ALL the others are fake and this is how they are supposed to look :rolleyes:

    Great piece.

    Edited by Darrell
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    Old thread indeed and much confusion. Isn't the size of the "podium" another indication of fake (i.e. if the podium touches the rim of the medal)? This seems to be a feature that appears with the curevd M....

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    Curved "m" ????

    Hi Terry,

    So does this indicate it's bad? :unsure: I'm not up on all the theories and controversies surrounding this one. Got it twenty some odd years ago, stuck it with the other two cased medals in the set and there it's sat over the years.

    I don't have alot in it as I recall so no major disaster if it's bad... just want to be sure for my own piece of mind. And so I can put in a note stating if it's bad so others will know when my time comes to move on.

    Thanks! :beer:

    Dan :cheers:

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    Guest Darrell

    Mike, yours is what almost everyone is comfortable with. However, I'm sure there are a few different variations due to the volume of these stamped out.

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    I am no specialist in these. I have read plenty and participated in a few threads on the WAF and I am still learning. I think Detlev Niemann did show a fake at some point.

    PS. Here it is

    Edited by TerryG
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    Hey Terry,

    Not an expert by any means, but I think when looking at the Detlev Memel fake you have illustrated it doesn't necessarily spell fake for the "straight-G" type of Memels. The COPY labeled Memel Detlev has shown has the straight-G, but what spells fake to me in the picture is the color of the medal, and especially the outer rim being uneven when comparing the obverse to reverse. (Obverse side is much thinner) While I would agree that the COPY one is a fake, I don't think it spells out fake for all the "straight-Gs," especially those whose other attributes (even rim, general quality, ect) point to it being an original, as well as there are "straight-G" examples that have provinence. Just my take on it, :cheers:

    Kind Regards,

    Steve

    Edited by stevo4361
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    Hey Dan,

    Not an expert by any means, but the texture of your Memel medal that you posted just strikes me as "off." Very pitted, with rough detail, almost like it was cast, or something along those lines? The "design" itself doesn't necessarily make it a bad one, the overall quality though looks lacking to me, and I don't like it. Just my opinion man,

    Kind Regards,

    Steve

    Edited by stevo4361
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