After a long time of wanting, I finally have my first East German officers dagger! I took a chance on e-bay, which makes me a little nervous because of some of the horror stories I've heard about there, and got lucky. Its an early 1989 production dagger and comes complete with its matching serial numbered box and certificate. Here is a link to the completed auction http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI...vip=true&rt=nc I welcome any comments or opinions on the dagger. I had a friend who has way more knowledge than me about these things check out the auction for me before I bid to make sure I wasn't buying an obvious fake or repro and he said it looked legit so I jumped. I have to admit, the fact that only one other person bid, and he only bid the minimum, makes me a little nervous, but I guess I'll see soon enough. An all matching dagger set has been number one on my want list almost since I started collecting the East German militaria, so I'm really happy that I finally got one! Sorry for the long rambling post, I'm just really excited!
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Originally posted by Flash00TA View Post
Hello
Its a nice complete late Dagger Set you got there..for a fair Price
Congrats.
It looks like its not maker marked on the other side of the Blade because I guess they Seller would have showed a photo of it.
I have a NVA Sword without maker mark but with serial number and guarantee paper of 1989.
So Im sure the Guarantee Papers were blanco printed and ordered from the Dagger Company in 1989 but filled out still after 1989 when the DDR system was crashed but the Company still produced Daggers but without maker mark anymore for a short period from Nov 1989 to post 1990.
It would be very interesting to find a late Dagger with paper from 1989 but also still with maker mark on blade, so we can be certain, they stopped the maker mark really in 1989 after november 9th.
Can you make out the date on the guarantee paper? It looks like before the 9.Nov 1989..so I wonder why they already stopped the maker mark when the DDR system was still intact. -
Yes, the date on the certificate is March 23, 1989. I was under the impression that by 1989, makers marks on the blades were few and far between, but then again, I'm very much a beginner when it comes to my knowledge on such things!Comment
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Flash00TA,
Although we have studied daggers for some years we have not been unable to correlate any time frames for the use of serial numbers and/or makers marks on blades. That being said, I would not expect to find a makers mark on a dagger from this late a period. A nice find with an all matching set of numbers. Getting hard to find daggers with the quarantee cerificate. Ref Andreas comment on the certificates being printed after 1990. This is true and it is worth paying attention to the cerificate when buying a dagger that comes with one. The date the certificate was printed normally shows up at the bottom of the certificate but not always. Numerous certificates have appeared on the market with issue dates that predated the priniting date which is obvious red flag.
Regards,
GordonComment
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Gordon, thanks for the heads up about the certificates. I'm not sure I see anything that stands out as a date at the bottom of the certificate in the auction picture. Can you make out a date? Also, should there be anything printed on the back side of the certificate? I will be really disappointed if it turns out the certificate isn't legitimate to the dagger. One thing I did take take into consideration was the the number 7 on the blade, box and certificate were all done in a seriff font. I don't know if that means anything or not and I hope I described it correctly. I hesitate sometimes to purchase big ticket items like this because I don't yet have a lot of knowledge on these things, but I've been really wanting one and this set looked pretty good! Thanks for any additional light you can shed on this!Comment
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Originally posted by Flash00TA View Post
The date when the certificate was printed you will find on the right lower corner.. Its a long Number with slashes and the last two digits mostly show the year of production or print...its the same with books and other printed material from the DDR period.
You did well with your Dagger
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This dagger was sold by a reputable long time DDR collector who I've know for years. He is an occasional visitor to this forum.Comment
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I believe he has a NVA paratrooper dress uniform currently up for sale as well.Comment
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Great dagger, and great FJ dress uniform (though a bit expansive I believe) for that matter!!Originally posted by ehrentitle View PostComment
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I already have a para officers uniform with the cuff bars. But these original uniforms with the cuff bars don't show up very often so I'm interested to see what it sells for.Originally posted by Jan Klaassen View PostComment
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I think that you have made the right decision in buying this dagger set. Cheers, Torsten.Comment
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Thanks everyone for their responses. I knew the price was decent, but I was really hoping to get some positive feedback that everything looked legit with the dagger, box and certificate and I think I got that. Like I said, it sometimes makes me nervous on e-bay with some of the horror stories I've heard with fakes and repro's being passed off to the uninformed for good money. I assume the set of numbers with the date in it at the bottom would be where it says V 12 19 20 918 Ri 159 89 with the 89 indicating printing in the year 1989? Thanks again everyone for the input!Comment
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Flash00TA,
I wasn't trying to indicate that there was anything wrong with your certificate. Just passing on information for your future reference. I found years ago that one dagger was not enough and perhaps you will buy another one someday.
Regards,
Gordon
Originally posted by Gordon Craig View PostComment
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Gordon;
I didn't misinterpret your post and I appreciate you passing that information along. I went back and looked at some of my East German weapons manuals and they are marked in a similar manner. This is a valuable piece of information to have and I'm glad you brought it up. It seems this could be good information to have when examining other DDR paper items and not just the dagger certificates. I've only been into the East German collecting field for a year and a half now and am eager to learn anything and everything that I can and I find this forum extremely useful. In fact, most of what I have learned about these daggers has come through looking at old posts on this site. Again, thanks for taking the time to respond and pass along the information!Comment
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