Just arrived in Zagreb. Collecting is definitely more a hobby than business for me and I generally try to pick up affordable pieces wherever I live for a while. Would welcome anyone's input into the prevalence of any fake awards/orders when it comes to Yugoslav and modern Balkans pieces. While I'd love to get some good quality WWII/ustache items I know they and any German/Italian pieces here will always be questionable. Thanks in advance.
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Like anywhere the high-end stuff is (probably) faked. I'd guess the more collectible Mondvor Partisan stars might be as well. But otherwise? I'd say you should be relatively safe.
Maybe some of our local guys will chime in.Thanks,
Eric Gaumann -
Here I am, not completely local guy, but close.
Unfortunately, yugoslav militaria is not entirely safe anymore. There are faked rare /more desirable items, there are items about which consensus is not clear among collectors, and there are also some fantasy pieces recently made.
Dangerous for unexperienced are partisan stars 2nd and 1st class (not only Mondvor, also IKOM), national hero, Ilinden badge, order of liberty, flying and submarine breast badges, some rare medals (Spanish civil war, Vis, Tito's journey to India and Burma). Some high -end diplomatic orders acan be assembled from different parts, partly even faked.
On the safe side are "common" orders, like merit to the people, labor orders, brotherhood and unity, bravery orders and medals, orders for military merit, people's army order (for the last two - 2nd and 3rd grades are common and relatively cheap, while 1st grades are quite rare and expensive, yet I didn't encounter any fakes (yet...))...
There are many "partisan" side caps and rank insignia recently on the market, that actually come from theater/movie studios. Some of these can be even original, or made from original material, but most likely from 50's to 80's.
Yugoslav people's army uniforms and equipment is relatively safe, although some alternations are on market, especially Federal rep. of YU and modern Serbia items turned into pre-91 YPA (like ceremonial guard uniforms - they were the same from 70's to 2000's, but original Yugoslav pre 1991 stuff is worth 3x more than post 1991.)
For Ustasha and balkan items I'm not expert at all, but there are many fakes too, of course. Patches from balkan wars are ehavily faked, and many fantasy pieces invented, it's also a common practice to get a plain ex-yugoslav or whatever modern helmet, spray paint it, stick on some fancy stickers, kick it around the corners few times, and voila - you have a battle worn helmet straight from battle of Vukovar.
I suggest you to post pictures of items you want to purcase and we'll try to evaluate it. For small, cheaper pieces (like medals under 10€, cap stars for euro or two) you can go safely. How long will you be in Zagreb? There's some militaria shows in autumn in Zagreb and nearby, if you're interested.Comment
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hello, thank you for the infos! I'd be really curious to see some of the fakes of partisan star... I suppose they pop up on ebay for example?Comment
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