Prussia An 1870 Iron Cross which seems to conflict with simple metallurgy

[Triadoro]

Pictures below of an EK1 featured on Ebay...

Note the green stains on the front which indicate the presence of copper-oxide. But there is no copper based material in an EK... right???

[Triadoro]

This is the back of the same EK. The ferrous-oxide stains in the places that they occur don't make sense.

[Danny70]

Hi,

It's very difficult to see much in those photographs, but the cross looks like a poor fake to me.

Genuine crosses are few and far between on ebay.

Regards - Danny

[Chris Boonzaier]

Bad photos indeed... it looks like the center is stamped from thin tin as opposed to cast?

[VtwinVince]

Looks like a Latvian fake to me.

[gregM]

I would really like to see better pictures but that core design is not

one that I recognize as a known original.

[Triadoro]

Bad photos indeed... it looks like the center is stamped from thin tin as opposed to cast?

Looks like a Latvian fake to me.

I would really like to see better pictures but that core design is not

one that I recognize as a known original.

Here is a closeup picture of the back. And yes... no doubt this piece is a fake. My intent in featuring this item was to encourage collectors to look for illogical oxidation colors and patterns (simple metallurgy) in evaluating the authenticity of a piece.

[gregM]

Plus---any 1870 that has a "Wagner" mark needs to be studied carefully.

Over the years we have seen the Wagner stamp on all sorts of fakes.

[Bavaria]

Hello

Shouldn´t the mark also be "LÖTH" instead of "LÖTIG"?

Kind regards

Rudi

[Biro]

Not an original Wagner 1870 EK, therefore the oxide should be of no concern to anyone. In fact it's fair to say it probably comes with the territory in a 'J Wagner' fake of this quality.