Memel Medals

[Dez H]

Hello all
I would like for us to delve further into the discussion of the <ST1Memel</ST1 medals which seem to have ground to a standstill here a few times on the forum. I will be the first to say the knowledge I have gained on these has been from this forum. I have read the past threads and have copied what Shane Bennett summarised below:

1. The curvature of the "M" in the word "<ST1lMemel</ST1" the "M" curves too much in the known fake and on the original the curvature is much less exaggerated.

2. The word "ERRENING" does not have the token bend to the arm of the "G", the fakes have a Straight arm on the "G"

3. you can also see subtle differences in the "2's"

However I have a few questions and comments on these statements:
Do we know how many different firms produced the <ST1Memel </ST1medal? According to this website 31,322 were awarded plus whatever number were private purchased, we would assume several firms produced this medal. Wouldn’t it be logical that if several firms produced these medals that there would be slight variants in the die characteristics of different firms pieces? Were do these "collector lore" statements stem from?

If anyone has pictures of memel medals, please post these also.

Thanks in advance

[George Stimson]

For a more complete summary, do a Search for "Memel Medals" and read all about it.

(The link stopped working! )

[Dez H]

I have done that a few times George, from reading the previous threads it seems there is a lot of different ideas on what is good and what is not. Furthermore I still don't understand why these points above are golden rules with Memel medals.

Do you have any thoughts on this George?

[George Stimson]

Well, I'll add this. Here are two types of Memel medals (actually three different medals, but two types). I believe both types are good.





Here's a close-up of the type on the left, above (different medal though).

[Airborne Nut]

Hey Dez,

Those are just the key points that I had read as to what a known original of a memel Medal had. I had a real convincing medal a few months back and several members gave me their knowledge and I posted what they had said.

I looked at many a Memel thread after that date, and the general concensus was that the ones with the Curved "G" the Different "S's", etc. were considered Known Originals. Everything else as you said is up for discussion. Unfortunately what I had learned is that the characteristics of the medal that I posted I was told had "characteristics of known fakes"

Like you said, my initial commetns were merely summarizations of others knowledge. So far we appear to have 3 categories.

1) Known Originals
2) Medlas with characteristics of Known Fakes
3) Wildcards: Convincing medals that have yet to be proven either way.

My statements were merely trying to help another collector make up his own mind. I think I even provided the links to the threads, but I can't remember.

Anyway what I had written was just that a summarization of what I have been told.

I am open to new groundbreaking discoveries on the memel front.

Cheers,

-Shane

[George Stimson]

Here is a closer look at the obverse of the medal on the right in the first pic.

[George Stimson]

And here's the reverse. While this example is similar to a known fake of this medal, it is not absolutely identical. Perhaps the repro was fashioned after this one?

[Airborne Nut]

Here's the one I had:

[Airborne Nut]

I still see the listed differences between this one and the one George has posted above. In George's example, The "G" seems to be different in than the one I posted in that the line coming out of it. In George's example, it is not striatight up and down but rather on an angle

The "M's" are far more curved than George's example. The2's are also different.

Maybe it's my eyes and I'm going crazy

-Shane

[George Stimson]

Here's the fake I'm talking about. It's definitely different than mine. Look at the "Ms" for example.

[Airborne Nut]

Looks the same as the one I posted. Yes I concur George, that looks like the one I had.

Here's the fake I'm talking about. (The same as yours, Shane?) It's definitely different than mine. Look at the "Ms" for example.

[George Stimson]

Yes, I stole that image from your previous post.

Here's another example of the one deemed fake. (Image borrowed from TerryG.)

[Airborne Nut]

-Shane

[Dez H]

George and Shane thanks for the additional info, I am still confused where these comments about what is good and what is bad have come from though, I really don’t see what basis they have. That is until someone can show us pictures of all the pieces produced from all the firms who produced these awards.<O</O

[George Stimson]

Reading the other threads I noticed that at one point Detlev posted a fake Memel as "Fake of the Week." So, he knows about that one. Maybe you could ask him what he knows about that particular repro.