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 Wednesday, February 03, 2010 Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The Sudetenland Bow Shaped Ribbon
Posted by Fred
Once in a while a military medal will show up with a ribbon in the shape of a bow. This almost always indicates that the medal was awarded to a woman. Illustrated below is the German Sudetenland Occupation Medal with the Prague Bar. The bow shaped ribbon means that this medal was awarded to a woman. My guess would be that she was a nurse or member of some sort of support unit. What really makes this medal interesting is that it commemorates one of the most important events in the history of the 20th century. The Sudetenland was the German speaking part of western Czechoslovakia, a country with unnatural borders cobbled together after the First World War. The province had rugged terrain and was well fortified. It would have been a tough nut to crack for the German military had Hitler ordered an invasion. Unfortunately for Czechoslovakia, there was a conference in Munich from which the Czechs were excluded. At this conference England, France and Italy agreed to give the Sudetenland to Germany! Most of Europe breathed a sigh of relief thinking that war had been averted. Hitler was seen by the Germans and many others as an invincible genius. Privately however Hitler was resentful and felt that he had been deprived of a glorious military victory! From this point on nothing could stop Hitler from becoming the Pied Piper of Death.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010 3:35:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00) 
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Prusso-German Campaign Medals
Posted by Fred
I may have been collecting too long. Medals that I have always considered common and under priced now frequently send me into sticker shock when I see them offered on the various internet sites. To make matters worse many of the medals offered are only copies, not even originals! Case in point is the German Franco Prussian War service medal. If you have to pay 40.00 or more dollars for one you should at least get an original! As with all the Prussian medals and crosses from 1864-1870, the thick loop on top should have two grooves, one on each side. Even the later official issues of the 1870 medal without the edge inscription still have a grooved loop. The only exception to this rule that I have ever seen is an original medal with a replacement wire loop. How do I know it is an original medal? It has the edge inscription and it is well struck. All the original medals and crosses are very well struck since they are mint products. Most of the copies are weaker strikes, some so weak that there even missing lines in the designs and the lettering looks shallow or faint. With the crosses the edges must be clean cut and straight. The edges on most copies look to be sloped or cut on a slant. The rims often range from high to subsurface on the same cross. The above mentioned copies are contemporary replacement pieces or wearing copies and as such are still collectible and often found in genuine groups but since they are only copies a collector should not pay full price for them.
The scan below includes an 1866 cross, an early issue 1870 medal with edge inscription and the later version without the edge inscription. All are genuine.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010 6:57:20 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Sunday, January 17, 2010
Blinding Hatred
Posted by Fred
The blinding hatred of politics never ceases to amaze me. I generally avoid talking about politics because I usually get both sides mad at me and nothing constructive comes of it. This time I will make an exception. Since Pres. Obama’s election I have seen an endless torrent of forwarded emails blaming the new president for everything; from his inherited economic problems to global warming itself. The latest one states that he has ordered the post office to issue an offensive Arabic language postage stamp and includes such a stamp design taken from the zazzle.com site. This is a site as I understand it, where a private person can have personalized postage stamps printed up with their own pictures or designs for an additional fee. The US Post Office has also issued an Arabic language holiday stamp in several different denominations for many years now. As a matter of fact the first such designs on stamps were issued as far back as 2001 which was many years before Pres. Obama took up residence in the White House. Don't believe me? Check this out: ( http://www.snopes.com/politics/stamps/eidstamp.asp ) Not being a stamp collector I may have just had an old new idea but I think now would be a good time for a series of postage stamps honoring the innocent victims of 911. Let us make the stamps bi-lingual and use both English and Arabic on every stamp. If you like this idea please pass it on, you need not even give me credit for it.
My main reason for airing this is to call attention to all the BS being passed around the internet. The anti Target Stores is another example of the lies that never die on the net. I also included the snopes.com link in the hope that readers would go there to check things out before forwarding them. If as a country we let ourselves become so gullible that we believe these lies and attack innocent people and corporations we will have lost our ability to recognize our true enemies and defend ourselves properly. At that point we are doomed.
Sunday, January 17, 2010 7:04:05 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Wednesday, January 06, 2010
Miniatures
Posted by Fred
Miniatures exist for nearly every medal or decoration ever issued by any government and private society. They are rarely government or official issue. Most often they are privately manufactured and sold to anyone willing to buy. Miniature medals are usually worn by veterans on their civilian clothing or on dress uniforms by career military personnel on formal occasions. Mini’s are also popular with many collectors. I prefer the miniature medals of state issued medals more than any others but the really interesting ones are those of international societies. When a group of these comes up they can be very eye catching. For example check out the group of seven below. On the far right we have the Sons of Union Veterans membership medal and their Iron Brigade sub-division. As a Wisconsin collector the Iron Brigade miniature medal instantly caught my eye. The rest of the medals are all international society orders or awards. These groups are all sponsors of various charities and charitable institutions. The Iron Brigade medal is marked “ESCO” which is the Erffmeyer & Son Company of Milwaukee, established in 1934. The last two medals are hereditary membership groups. So how does one get the first five? By spending lots of money in the form of donations! The original owner may have been an attorney in South-Eastern Wisconsin so he probably had enough money to decorate himself with this splendid little bar and in doing so he made the world a better place for many in need.
Wednesday, January 06, 2010 5:01:06 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, December 30, 2009
The End Is Near!!
Posted by Fred
The end of personal checking is near. According to a British financial publication British banks will abolish checking within ten years. How long before American banks will follow, if they don’t end our checking services even sooner and what does this mean for collectors? In Europe all the banks are part of the “IBAN” system which supposedly makes bank account to bank account money transfers very easy and economical. If we had a system like that in the USA I would gladly moth ball my check books, but sadly we don’t. Here in the USA banks dream of the day that they no longer have to deal with the expenses of personal checking. They also hate the thought of all those short term loans that we write ourselves (the time between when we write our checks and when they get cashed) which the banks can’t collect interest on. The fact that many of us in the US have already given up check writing in favor of credit cards is also pointing to our future. But what kind of future will it be? Once checking is gone we will have eliminated that option or to put it another way we will have burned that bridge behind us. As collectors we buy and sell many more times than the average non-collector type person. Buying should not present many problems but selling is a different story. Since we will be forced to use services like Paypal, Google-checkout and the like, we will be subject to their rules. For example if you use Paypal. you better not sell any Nazi stuff, or even an Imperial German medal group with the lone Nazi era long service medal in it. If you want to pay your dues to a collector site like Wehrmacht Awards you can’t use Paypal unless you are willing to lie, be devious and risk paying a hefty fine that you agreed to when signing the user agreement. If you use other less restrictive services you will still run the risk of fraudulent charge-backs were by a crooked buyer can get their money refunded without ever returning the defective item or proving that the item never arrived! “That is a cost of doing business” I have been told. Added to that cost is the additional service charge per transaction of about 4%. This percentage will increase when we have no other options available to us, you can bet on that. With all that said and done there is yet a much larger secret risk threatening us, computer hacking! You will not hear much about that unless you listen closely. Currently internet security can only hope to catch up with new threats as they appear and hope that between the time the new threats are recognized and blocked, serious damage has not already been done; like all the money in your bank accounts vanishing. We have all heard of successful hackings into big corporate and major bank data bases plus some of the attacks on our defense department computer systems. These are just the reported attacks. Many similar attacks and breaches go unreported due to intentional cover-ups. Smaller local banks are even more vulnerable. So think of that when you set up an automatic withdrawal plan to pay your credit card charges. Throughout my life time I have written thousands of checks and used credit cards on the inter-net only about a dozen or so times. The only time I have ever been ripped-off was through my credit card use on the internet. The future is coming and the only thing we can do now is to resist by continuing to use our checks in the hope that slowing it down will buy us enough time to make the future safer when it is finally forced upon us. Happy New Years to all that read this, Fred
Wednesday, December 30, 2009 3:38:46 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Book Report
Posted by Fred
I never thought I would do book reviews here but in this case I feel that I must because the book is just too good not to mention. First of all I hate spending big bucks on books which may sound strange considering where I worked for over thirty years. When I do bite the bullet the book has to be more than just a price guide. It has to be a factual reference that I use almost daily. It has to be filled with clear photos of obverses and reverses, hallmarks and other important details to help me distinguish the genuine from the fakes. It has to show me things that I never knew existed after 40 years of collecting and this book does it all. The book is Detlev Niemann’s Price Guide Germany 1871-1945, Third edition. The title does not do it justice. It is much more than a simple price guide. The extensive photos alone make it a valuable reference enabling the user not only to determine exactly which medal or decoration they have in hand but also which variety. Also covered are the award documents, boxes or cases of issue and miniatures. There is also extensive coverage of Frei Korps and Veterans Organization medals plus political and civil awards including nonportable or table medals. The only items not covered are the medals of the German States which would probably double the size of this volume if included. Text is in German, English and Russian! The book itself is massive weighing in at 9 pounds of glossy paper and hard cover. It is nearly 1 foot tall, 8 ½ inches wide and 2 ½ inches thick with 980 pages containing 3052 pictures! The book was published in 2008, so why am I so late in reporting it? The price was just over 100.00 including postage and it had to be ordered from Germany which could also mean currency conversion costs, customs duties and the risks of a long ocean voyage. Years ago I bought a copy of the first edition which though smaller was still impressive and implied positive changes and additions yet to come. Then I found Niemann’s web site and knew I had to get the book. Before I ordered it from Germany however, I searched for the title on the big internet auction site and found to my delight that there is a distributor for the book in New Jersey and they accept payment by personal check! All for the same price that the book and postage would have cost from Germany but without the hassles. So if you think you may want a copy of this book check it out at: www.CollectRussia.com I got good prompt service from this outfit
Tuesday, December 22, 2009 8:56:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Casino tokens and high silver prices
Posted by Fred
This blog entry while not military in subject may be of value to many readers. Since you are all collectors of varying degree, many of you may have visited casinos and brought home some ten dollar silver center tokens as souvenirs or may even have a small collection of them. Over the last few years changes have occurred that you should be aware of. Casinos have ceased issuing and redeeming the silver center ten dollar tokens (and most other tokens too). That means that the tokens are now a finite item which should make them more collectible in the future and hopefully a good investment. Many of you can not or do not want to wait that long and may even be thinking of selling the tokens for their ever increasing silver value. Most coin dealers will only buy them as silver and will usually under estimate the actual silver content due to lack of knowledge. On ebay these tokens rarely bring bids equal to their silver or face value because the bidders will not pay more than that amount for the token including the postage that they know they will have to pay. Then the seller also has to pay the ebay and paypal fees so as a seller you will usually only get little more than half the silver value of tokens sold that way. Keeping all this in mind recently I saw some of the outer rings of the silver center tokens in a dealer’s junk box for a quarter each. Best quarter I ever spent. Now I can weigh just the outer ring without having to damage one of my tokens. The ring weighs 19.2 grams. The complete token, ring and the .999 silver center weighs 37.34 grams. Therefore the silver center weighs 18.14 grams of pure silver or .5832 oz actual silver weight. Multiply the current silver price by .5832 and you will have the actual melt value. The melt value of the gold plated bronze ring is any one’s guess. When you find a good silver buyer, if that is the route you decide to take, you could throw in the rings for free.
Wednesday, December 16, 2009 6:45:51 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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Friday, December 11, 2009
“It’s Cast”
Posted by Fred
Finally we are up and running again. It even took three tries for my password to work. Oh well better late than never.
“It’s Cast” are words that a collector rarely wants to hear. There are times how ever, when those words are not the kiss of death. The coins issued in Mexican state of Sinaloa during the Mexican Revolution for example, are some of the worst looking sand castings that I have ever seen. When it comes to high relief medals and badges casting can also be a genuine means of production. A large government mint can strike high relief medals and badges from dies often having to strike the medals four or more times from the same die which is a costly operation to say the least. Some badges are so difficult that they must be struck in several pieces to be assembled later. For smaller private manufacturers with small production runs casting is a much more economical option. Lost Wax casting if done with expertise and the proper equipment can produce fantastic results that many collectors would not recognize as being cast without the use of a magnifying glass. Illustrated here is a two piece rubber mold, from the estate of an old time Milwaukee jeweler, that was used to make presentation copies of the Milwaukee Police Department Detective’s badge. At the risk of over simplification I will briefly describe the process. The mold is filled with a wax that hardens hard enough so that the rubber mold can be removed without causing any distortion. The hardened wax badge copy is then encased in a very fine clay which in turn hardens into a perfect mold of the badge. When the clay is hard enough molten metal is injected into the mold causing the wax to vaporize as the molten metal replaces it. After the metal has cooled the clay mold is removed and the new badge is ready to be engraved and have a pin and catch attached.
So how does one determine if a cast badge is genuine? First try to know the correct characteristics for the item and the time period of manufacture. For example the Milwaukee detective badge has been in use for about 100 years so expect several maker variations. Some Imperial era German aviation badges were made over 30 or more years by many makers using both cast and die struck methods. Some are government issues and others private replacement pieces. Generally the higher the quality the better the chances are that the item is good. A makers name or mark also helps but remember that some good items do not carry a makers mark and some fakes do.
Friday, December 11, 2009 4:04:03 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)
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