NVA Belts with brass buckles?

[grenzflieger]

Hello everybody,

I got a questions about these three belts I obtained a few months ago for only $10. Looking at the markings they are NVA. The thing I don't understand is why the buckles are brass colored. Usually these buckles have a metal color. Although the buckles can get a brass color after being used a few years these ones have an original brass coating. I did some research in Keubke but I found out that belts with brass buckles were only used by admirals of the Volksmarine. My ratio tells me that I can't be that lucky so I guess they had an other purpose. Remarkable is the fact that the belt all the way to the right is stitched all the way. I don't have a lot of knowledge of the early nva periods so maybe you guys can help me ID these belts.



Excuse me for the fact that the pictures are very large!






Thanks already!

[Thälmannpionier]

got the same Buckle.

Is your Buckle also hollow cast on the backside?
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...t=belt+general

[grenzflieger]

Thanks a lot for your reply Thälmannpionier. Interesting thread you mentioned. Though I guess your belts are quite different. My belts don't have a hollow cast on the backside and aren't decorated with stitching like yours. Actually they're just like every other NVA belt (except the one to the right that is stitched at the sides), the only difference is the 'gold' coated buckle.

[grenzflieger]

Thälmannpionier, I've seen your belt in this ad on ebay.de

I hope this will help you determinate your mystery belt...

http://cgi.ebay.de/UNIFORM-GENERALLE...1%7C240%3A1318

[David H]

Hello grenzflieger, don't read to much into the colour of the buckle, they are alot less common tham the silver ones, but you can get hold of them if you look hard enough. Generals & Admirals used them but they were in common use by naval warrant officer/petty officer grades.
They are nice to have and the price was good, I do like the stitched edge variant.

Gold doesn't always equal Senior Officers. As with andreas' early belt which is standard KVP officer issue, alot of which carried over to the NVA.

[grenzflieger]

Hi David, thanks for your answer. As a collector of mainly VM items this is good news for me! Sad thing is that I'm not a collector of the 'old stuff' from the 50's and 60's but well who knows I will in future

Thanks again