EK 1939 Ritterkreuz ... guess it was a copy?

[Chris Boonzaier]

I used to have this one about 10-15 years ago, came from one of the epochs experts, and went to one of the epochs experts... I think with todays research it is no longer accepted as good?

[TheKnight]

Chris, have you a picture of the ribbon for this medal. Perhaps it was a field replacement cross. Where is this medal now?

[Chris Boonzaier]

Hi,

thats the best I can do, its long gone... I bought it in 95 or 96 from one of Germany's most well known collectors back then, in those days the rule of thumb was "quality is fine, 800 stamp, must be S+L".. a couple of years later I passed it on to another one of the bigger collector dealers... it went through many hands, and in the late 90s noone ever had a second thought.

It is quite interesting to see how much of the stuff from back then is now recognised as not kosher. Back then the only references were Bowen, Gordon Williamsons first book, and Geisslers first book. All were groundbreaking works but in that era the the details were not good enough to form an opinion. The subject matter took a jump forward on Williamsons 1939 book where you could see much better details, then Dietrich März's book pretty much finished it off.... I think at Gordon Williamsons 2nd book it was possible to see it did not correspond to the known 800s, then März put the last nail in the coffin.

It is a good example of how the hobby advances...

[Chris Liontas]

I'll second that. The references and info on the KC has changed so much since the late '80s. Honestly all that was old is new again...gives me a heck of headache trying to keep everything straight now. Kudos to all those who collect these and keep everything straight. I cant that is for sure.

[Paul R]

They definitely scare me. With 10s of thousand dollars at stake, it is not worth the gamble to me.