SS Medal Bar

[Gary B]

One more for the collection.

Gary B

[Gary B]

Reverse

[Bob Hunter]

Congratulations on the excellent new addition. How many mounted SS have you seen in past year?

[don]

Nice one Gary.Got a new double in the mail

don

Edited January 29, 2006 by don

[Gary B]

Dear Don,

Please post it when you have time.

Dear Bob,

Thanks for the comments. Yes, the SS bars are quite rare. I have only seen 2 others in the past several years.

Gary B

Nice one Gary.Got a new double in the mail

don

Edited January 29, 2006 by Gary B

[Stogieman]

I saw this bar and chose to pass on it. The thread used to tie-down that SS medal is substantially different than the thread on the other 3 pieces. Might very well be fine, but this one really needed a "hands-on". When you get it, I'd hit it with a blacklight right off the bat!

[MattGibbs]

What was the outcome on this..? I like to see SS ribbon bars, but don't see many full sized.

thanks

MG

[Guest Rick Research]

Uh oh. I missed this one until now.

1) Am unhappy about the mismatched age between the awards and the ribbons. EK is dingy and grungy, ribbon minty fresh... et cetera. That's not "age in place," that's a careworn old loose cross that was stuck on a new bar, from the looks of it.

2) This looks suspiciously like the Hand-Snipped Brass Catch of ALL brass (pin, alas so though those CAN be found on steel-backs even during the war as left over stock-on-hand, but is the backing plate underneath tin-snipped edges BRASS or stamped steel?) fraud bars:

[attachmentid=32057]

3) Flashed these ribbons with a blacklight?

Too much time has now passed for "normal" return privileges-- did you get THIS from the same place as the NSDAP bad bar?

Rick

[Gary B]

Dear Rick and Matt,

Good eye Rick!

Based on information I had picked up from reading posts from both of the "evil twins" I was able to discern that this piece was not a piece for my collection. I returned this many weeks ago (within the 7 day inspection period).

As has been noted in the thread, the SS medal was sewn down with different colored thread from the rest of the medals. As a matter of fact there were 4 different colors of thread used in the assembly of the medal: light gray and light blue to hold the medals down, green and dark gray to sew the actual ribbons to the backing plate. The catch and pin are made of brass which in itself is a possible combination for construction of bars of the period. Unfortunately, as has been noted by the evil/good eye of Rick, the catch was hand snipped. There was even a scribe line present (I learned this from both Ricks). Additionally, since there were loose pieces of thread on the bar I took the opportunity to snip and burn them...all smelled like nylon and left a hard black ball of residue. So the bar went back to whence it came.

As for the NSDAP bar, that went back this week also.

I realized the SS bar had problems as soon as I received it. I also realized some "issues" with the NSDAP bar but over ruled them due to the source. I have learned from this to trust my gut instincts.

The only big bar I have bought that has been 100% good was bought on this forum from Stogieman (the WMC/WMM bar)

Thanks again Rick for your advise!

Gary

Edited March 26, 2006 by Gary B

[Guest Rick Research]

Sometimes I think I should change my avatar to the roll-call Sergeant from "Hill Street Blues." It IS a collecting jungle out there so we all neeed to "be careful out there."

[MattGibbs]

I have been reading a lot of threads about this subject because I am interested in getting into this area, but I am a little bit afraid now because of all the seemingly dodgy ones. And I thought the political badges fakes were scary

I think I shall need to be a lot more wary! especially as I would particularly like to collect civilian awards on bars!

Anyhow I will have to get a good book methinks, anyone any recommendations?

As mentioned above, how do you chaps define a long bar, based on all the sites I have looked on at for sale bars there are so many 4 and 5 and hardly anything above that so is 8 plus considered to be long..??

Many thanks for any help!

Best wishes

Matt Gibbs

[Gary B]

Dear Matt,

The fakers are faking everything, so the best defense is to be armed with as much knowledge that you can. Unfortunately there are no books on medal bars per se. I would recommend getting to know as much as you can about the medals that comprise the bar, after that the art of detecting a fake or post war put together bar is just that an art. You should be able to pick up some good pointers from the forums. Both Ricks are an invaluable source of information.

A month or so ago I tried to start a thread on how to detect a good bar but it seemed to lead to a dead end since there are so many things to take into consideration. To sum it up I would say that all of the medals must be original, the combination of awards must be feasible, blacklight to look for glowing white thread (this test should be used in conjunction with other tests), look at the construction methods/sewing (backing plate could be brass zince or steel but should look old and not brand new), look at how the cleanliness of the medasl mathes or does not match the ribbons (wear and dirt should be consistent). And if in doubt show it on the forum and get some opinions.

As for size of bars, most of the bars in my collection are 2-4 medals. If you are collecting TR awards you will be hard pressed to find a pure TR bar with 5 or more medlas. If the guy had that many medals he probably had some WWI service as well so he should have some WWI medals. As for the really big bars I only have 1 with 8 medals and 1 with 7 medals. The huge bars are really quite rare. If you see one that looks too good to be true it probably is!

Hope this helps.

Gary B

I have been reading a lot of threads about this subject because I am interested in getting into this area, but I am a little bit afraid now because of all the seemingly dodgy ones. And I thought the political badges fakes were scary

I think I shall need to be a lot more wary! especially as I would particularly like to collect civilian awards on bars!

Anyhow I will have to get a good book methinks, anyone any recommendations?

As mentioned above, how do you chaps define a long bar, based on all the sites I have looked on at for sale bars there are so many 4 and 5 and hardly anything above that so is 8 plus considered to be long..??

Many thanks for any help!

Best wishes

Matt Gibbs

[MattGibbs]

Yes indeed, knowlege and more knowlege! I shall have to try looking for as many original bars as possible.

Regards

Matt Gibbs