Silesian medal of Freikorps Oberland

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Gedenkmünze für Oberschlesien des Freikorps Oberland.
So, up for discussion is one of the most controversial Freikorps decorations ever. It is so heavily reproduced/faked that for many of us it has no collection interest anymore. Today I'll do my best to improve this situation
Year 1942, Freikorps monthly newspaper "Der Reiter gen Osten". Young Kurt-Gerhard Klietmann, who was working there researching and studying Freikorps awards, placed a shirt article named "Unknown decoration" , asking if someone may recognize this medal by picture. Here is the article and picture in question.

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Although the quality is not good enough to see all details, I pretend to say there is the only type of this medal which looks like pictured example. Here it is, from my collection.

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Moreover, I also found an article by famous Czech author Vaclav Mericka (Slezsky Numismatik, May 1959) which shows the same medal from Dr. Klietmann archives.

[Brian L.]

I owned an original of this medal with the award document many years ago.

While I have a mild interest in owning one again, the excellent fakes, as you say have all but destroyed the collecting value of this medal.

It's a shame, really as it's actually a scarce award.

I agree that yours, which I like a lot is almost certainly genuine. There are several small details on it that are missing from the fakes.

The trouble is how do you convince other Freikorps collectors, most of whom are most certainly less knowledgeable than you and perhaps even less knowledgeable than me? They tend to be a nervous bunch at the best of times.

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Hi Brian,
IMO pictures confirm how the original medal should look like. It's enough for me, for you and some other collectors. Anyway, the original medal is not that often met, so it can't be in every collection

[mchap]

Excellent, thanks for the information. 99% of the time I ignore these medals if I see them for sale. (EBay of course). I haven't had a chance to discuss the fine points of a purchase with another collector yet, and I don't think that day will come anytime soon because of all the fakes!

[Brian L.]

Hi Brian,
IMO pictures confirm how the original medal should look like. It's enough for me, for you and some other collectors. Anyway, the original medal is not that often met, so it can't be in every collection

I agree with you that there are those comparative handful of collectors like you and I who have enough confidence in our knowledge to take a risk on this medal. Having said that, the price would necessarily have to be quite reasonable.

Given that perhaps about 300 were awarded only to former members of Bataillon Sturmfahne Teja of Freikorps Oberland, it is in fact one of the rarest of Freikorps decorations because of its exclusivity. Therefore, it quite sad that it has lost its lustre in the collecting field, largely due to the crooks of the "club" (raritaetensammlerclub) who were the first to flood the market with high-quality fakes of this decoration.