Deumer EKI and Spangen

[Tom Yanacek]

Hello Collector's!
About two years ago I purchased a sales sample board consisting of 15 pieces, all produced by Wilhelm Deumer. The best pieces on the board were a 1939 Spange to the 1914 EKI, and a 1939 EKI. Although I would have loved to keep the board intact, I ended up dismantling it for two reasons.
1) The board had been folded in two places, and had split at the folds. It was in terrible shape and would have eventually come apart.
2) I was very curious about the reverses, and wanted to study the pieces.
I sold 12 of the remaining pieces from the board and ended up getting the EK and Spange for free and then some. The only other piece I kept from the board was a bronze Austrian Occupation Medal that never had a silver finish applied.
(I initially thought it was a Czech Occupation Medal) The interesting thing about the occupation medal was that it had 'L/11' stamped on the medal rim bottom. I never saw an occupation medal marked in this manner. In fact I don't ever recall seeing an occupation medal marked on the suspension ring either. Anyway, here is the Spange.

[Tom Yanacek]

The reverse of the Spange. Unmarked, but definitely a Deumer commercial production piece.

[Tom Yanacek]

A really nice looking EKI...

[Tom Yanacek]

the reverse...

[Tom Yanacek]

the catch and 'L/11' marking...

[Tom Yanacek]

This is a second Deumer Spange that I purchased in January of this year. Some wear to the finish on this one but still pretty nice looking. The dealer wanted $125. for this piece. I offered $100. The seller said that he would go no lower than $105. I reluctantly paid him the extra $5., the taffy pockets that I am.

[Tom Yanacek]

The reverse. Also unmarked, but original Deumer production.
Happy collecting! Tom Yanacek

[Tom Yanacek]

A few closeups! Pin, hinge, and catch.

[Tom Yanacek]

The catch end... The funny looking round object is just a pin head I used to prop up the piece.

[Tom Yanacek]

and the hinge end.

[Glenn R]

Excellent reference pictures of the spange, thankyou. Great Deumer cross too.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Tom, you have some great items there!

I have an L/11 rim marked Entry into Austria medal too. I had not heard of another until today. I have shown this on the forum in the past, but here is the pic.

Cheers, Ade.

[Patrick W]

I have a Czech Occupation medal that came on another Deumer sample board that is stamped L/11 in the same position. That was also the first and only one that I'd seen. It appears to be quite a late production in washed zinc.

Patrick

[Tom Yanacek]

Hello Glenn, Adrian and Patrick!

Thank you for your responses to this thread. I like these pieces alot, and I am happy to have them in my collection.
Adrian and Patrick,
Glad to see that there are others who have noticed this unusual marking on occupation medals. Thanks for posting a picture of yours, Adrian. It looks really nice. Since you posted a picture of yours, I figured I would do the same. As I mentioned before, mine was removed from a Deumer Sales Sample Board. It was mounted to the board suspended from a small piece of ribbon for the Oldenburg Friedrich August Cross 2nd Class. (miniature ribbon width) This is not uncommon to find the medals with improper ribbons on sales sample boards. The boards were meant to display the manufacturers wares (medals) and not necessarily the ribbons which were produced by other firms. Sometimes when these boards were put together, they would use whatever ribbons they had available at the time (leftovers/scraps). Here is the front of the medal with the ribbon as it was mounted on the board.

[Tom Yanacek]

When I removed this piece from the board I received two surprises. I had assumed by the bronze color of the medal, that this was a Czech Occupation Medal. Surprise #1 was that this was actually an Austrian Occupation Medal without a silver plate finish. Here is the reverse...