EK 1914 Eiserne Kreuz 101....

[joe campbell]

for your consideration/dissection.

i am posting this for a friend.

i have my thoughts which i will post at a later time

(i think it is "period"!).

i'd appreciate your thoughts on it.

thanks!

joe

[joe campbell]

the reverse.

the only extra piece of info that i will add because

of the way the pictures are is that the finish, in my mind,

is quite reminiscent of 1939 EK's.

joe

[Stogieman]

Hi Joe, my thoughts would be WW2, or possibly even post-war. Is it magnetic core? Notice the indistinct lettering/crown and the way the paint creeps up on the beading??

[joe campbell]

'tis magnetic and three piece contruction.

and i agree about the crispness!

any more thoughts?

joe

[Mike K]

Hi Joe,

Detail appears OK but the paint riding the beading - assuming that's what we're seeing - is not something I'd expect on an early cross. What are the dimensions - 42, 43 or 44 mm? At this stage, I'm leaning towards 30s or 40s, if not a little bit later.

Regards

Mike K

[Guest Rick Research]

Looks like a post-1939 to me. Easy enough to compare the size of this against a 1914 and the larger 1939s.

It also doesn't appear to be silver, which again suggests a WW2 or later one.

[Daniel Murphy]

I believe it is a '57 version. The quality does not even come close to 39-45 construction and nowhere near 1918 quality. The paint, the poor quality of the frame finishing (if there was any) all points to 57 for me.

Dan Murphy

[Stogieman]

Pretty weird that they made Imperial stuff post-57....... I mean, couldn't they just buy a real one??

[landsknechte]

Pretty weird that they made Imperial stuff post-57....... I mean, couldn't they just buy a real one??

There couldn't have been a terribly huge market of WWI vets still shopping for decorations in 1957, but perhaps there were those that were uncomfortable wearing someone else's old medals should they need replacements.

[Stogieman]

Hi Chris, I can understand and respect that, but since we had a ton of leftover pieces from WW2, I would have thought that WW1 made pieces were still available to be purchased from old stock right though the late 1950's. ???

[landsknechte]

Hi Chris, I can understand and respect that, but since we had a ton of leftover pieces from WW2, I would have thought that WW1 made pieces were still available to be purchased from old stock right though the late 1950's. ???

I still suspect that a significant proportion of the loose 1957 WWI decorations floating around are simply low quality "collectors items", not entirely unlike the medals that are for sale at the local Army-Navy shop. How many of those are actually bought by people that had earned them? Not many, I'd wager.

The last theory that I put up there was about the only thing that I can think of. It's interesting how the majority of the 1957 WWI decorations you see are the more commonplace decorations of which there would likely be a decent amount of left over stock laying around.

--Chris

[David Gregory]

Considering the level of destruction in German cities and the amount of displaced persons having to start from scratch in the immediate post-war period, it would not surprise me that there would be demand for replacement medals for ageing WW1 veterans.

That demand may have been met by surviving old stocks to a certain extent, but the major producers and suppliers would almost certainly have catered to the elderly vets as well as those willing to wear what they had been awarded in the 1939-45 period.

[joe campbell]

it is my understanding that there were '57 versions which were

available for veteran use.

IMHO, i think this is a pre-1945 version, but post

"patriotic 30's, early WW2" period.

i appreciate the feedback here and understand

the range of opinion. i think it's a bit of a difficult

call to make sometimes.

thanks,

joe

[Stogieman]

Agreed Joe, tough to call these sometimes. The more I look at the painted core though, the more I'm thinking post '45. I cannot think of any (positively) pre-45 cross that had that little detail!

(PS: as an aside, heck of a Saxon bar you sent me, will get it up for you later tonight!!)

[Chris Boonzaier]

A thought to the "57" versions...

WW1 cannot of course be a 57 version, but it could be post WW2.

About 10 years ago i called S&L to ask about a 57 RK.

They said they had none, and i should contact Werner Sauer of the BDOS, he would note my order and I assume with enough orders, they would whip up a batch....

I suppose any legit Veterans who wanted a 57 RK already had them, and now it was only for collectors....

Technically it means (I suppose) that for years S&L has been making RKs for the collectors market, and not for recipients...

[Streptile]

This is most definitely no post WWII cross. It's a Weimar or early TR-era cross probably by Schauerte & Hohfeld, but possibly by Assmann & Sohn or Friedrich Linden.