German WW2 medals - authentication assistance requested

[Nabs]

Hello gents on CGN,

I know these are not milsurps but I believe the WW2 German collecting community will take some serious interest.

I am moving out of WW2 German items in favour of WW1 German militaria and awards so I will be shortly posting many of my WW2 German medals on the EE for those interested. My main goal is to use some of the funds to finish a Gewehr 98 sniper build and finish my re-enacting WW1 German kit for 2014 to honour my great grandfather. The rest of the funds will go towards finishing my commercial pilot's license and ratings at my flight school.

I must admit that award authenticity is out of my league as I specialize in Imperial German rifles and carbines. I humbly ask for help in determining if the following items are originals or not. I won't be offended if they are not as I picked them up 10 years ago when I started collecting. I picked up all of these items from a gentleman who worked for "Academy Coins & Militaria" out of Oakville (I still have their business card too). All of the items were sold to me as originals though the Knights cross was a bit of a conundrum and we were not sure at the time. I am hoping to settle it once and for all with your help.

I did look online at confirmed originals of the Knights cross and my particular example is very close in workmanship and markings layout so it really did peak my curiosity.

I resized the images so they won't kill anyone's bandwidth but preserved image quality as I understand that is very important in figuring out if these are originals or not.

Below are the ones I wish to ask about, I appreciate any and all help.

Thank you CGN, and have a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy holiday.

First up is the Knights Cross with ribbon, as compared to my Iron Cross 2nd class:

Gold Wound badge - Condor legion, as compared to a WW1 Black wound badge

Spanish civil war cross in bronze

Luftwaffe ground assault badge

Afrika korp cuff title

 

[Desert_Fox]

I would post them up at the Wehrmacht Awards Forum.

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/index.php

From looking at your DAK Cufftitle, and looking at a few on WAF, yours does look like a repro... But I am definitely NO expert on medals and cloth gear...

I've bought much too many items in past decades that were guaranteed originals, only to find out they were fakes... I now steer clear of almost all Turd Reich medals and cloth...

Cheers!

 

[joe n]

Hi Nabs,
No offense to the great gang here, but I'd put these up for discussion on the Wehrmacht forum. Many high end collectors hang out there (as well as a few freaks and crooks) who do nothing but collect these items. Www.wehrmachtawards.com. I am no expert, so of I was to see any of these pieces at a show, I'd pass. All high end collectables that are commonly faked. I wish you all the luck with your journey

 

[Nabs]

Hi gents,

I registered on Wehrmacht awards forum but I have to wait to be allowed to post so I thought I would give CGN a try.

As for cuff title, I remember asking the gentleman the same question 10 years ago. He said he purchased it from a British vet who brought back a roll from a German supply house in July 1945. Whether it was true or not, I'm not sure.

 

[Imperial luger]

Nabs, I like the Knights cross, well defined bead rings, is the Swastika the same height as the bead rim when laying on its side, the clip is well defined with rounded edges as it should be, the wound badges would be not so tuff to judge if they were a bit more oval in shape, ground assault is good with well defined feathers on the eagle, the spanish cross also looks good to me.

the boys at W/A will wish to see a closeup of the end view of the knights cross to see the line separations where the pieces are soldered together.

On the cuff title the background stiching is loose on the back of the printing in verticle lines so this is good to see.

As stated let the boys at W/A tear it up a bit.

 

[sail32]

During the 1960’s, an Austrian jeweller who had supplied metals and badges to the Germans, dusted off his dies and stamps, and was supplying items to the collectors market. These were in disguisable from wartime production.
Unfortunately I no longer have specific information on this maker.
There were also a lot of poorly made replicas as well.

 

[Desert_Fox]

During the 1960’s, an Austrian jeweller who had supplied metals and badges to the Germans, dusted off his dies and stamps, and was supplying items to the collectors market. These were in disguisable from wartime production.
Unfortunately I no longer have specific information on this maker.
There were also a lot of poorly made replicas as well.

Souval did fakes in the 60's and 70's. They made originals during the war. They were Austrian.

 

[Nabs]

Thank you for the input everyone, it is much appreciated. I posted the pictures and information on the appropriate forums of Wehrmacht-awards.com forums so I await the criticisms of the experts there.

 

[John Sukey]

Remember Barry Sadler, the guy who wrote the "ballad of the Green Berets"? He also collected german medals. It was determined that 80% of his collection were fakes!

Ve lost der war. but those Americans wanted to collect medals so ve opened up der factory und kept making them

 

[wojnar]

The rule of thumb on this type of awards unless there is a original award paper/book coming with the award medal or it had been dug up from a grave assume it might be fake. The 100% full prove replicas were made in quantity not only in Austria but also in Poland where all original dies were left in Wifama factory in Lodz. This dies were reproduced and sold in the 80s. 1989 there was an explosion of knocks offs that looked better then originals they were mainly sold to hungry West European tourists wanting to find an original Nazi Memorabilia in former Eastern Block.

 

[Tanis]

The Knights Cross is definitely a post-war fake, though one of the more immediate post-war fakes. The Spanish Cross also looks fake to me. The Wound Badge and the Ground Assault Badge look ok, the cufftitle I will defer to someone more knowledgeable in those than I.

Edit: Actually, I'm second guessing myself on the wound badge now.... Ah, I'll echo the sentiments of others here and divert you to the WAF. A much larger wealth of information there. Only problem I have with them is that they will tell you if an item is fake or not, but won't explain WHY an item is fake so that you can learn from it and avoid similar mistakes down the line.