A fool and his money--

[gregM]

are soon parted.

Here is an example of not doing your home work.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...MEWA:IT&ih=017

This cross has all the bells and whistles. Enough bling to make
everyone take a look. But they didn't take a close enough look.

Here is the whole setup.
Pretty nice isn't it?

[gregM]

Notice anything?

How about oaks with the sans-serif style numbers. Maybe good-maybe bad. I personally
stay away from them. Maybe the very coarse weave to the ribbon? OR maybe
the 9th bead in the crown glowing like a neon sign?

[gregM]

Plus for just that much more star appeal we have the 1914 spange.

Now I know we do not have any proof one way or another on these
but for being such a rare award there seems to be a lot of them
floating around. Two of them on ebay just today.

[gregM]

The set up went for $965 and I think the whole thing was fake.
I welcome any other opinions.

[Brian S]

Looked real from 10,000 feet in the first photo. From there in it has a few problems. It does appear to have that special little big bead.

[Montgomery Burns]

wel ,,joure saying its not good ?


reg kay

[Montgomery Burns]

heres a nother one
http://cgi.ebay.de/Alte-Ordensspange...d=p3286.c0.m14

[Steve Campbell]

I would think you would have to be a serious collector to spend that kind of jack on any medal. However, a serious collector would at least know that these 1914 spanges are most likely fakes when they appear.

[regular122]

And given that the faker can take a $65 1870 EKII 9th Bead fake and turn it into a $900 profit, that ain't bad at all. But it has to be real. It came from 'the Kaiser' himself. 100% feedback. And he at least has a 7-day return policy. Maybe the buyer will see this thread. Steve

[regular122]

Double post

[Lance]

Does anyone have experience with a real spange? A few years ago I had a spange in-hand. The guy selling it had dumped it out on ebay for $120 or so... I remember it was disapointingly tiny and the enamel exhibited striations where it was ground flush with the metal highlights. I've still no idea if it was real. The guy was a thrift shop hunter and had stumbled into this along with 2 (real gold) Baden red cross awards, a rowing Verein piece and an Oldenburg feuerwehr award. I think that the others were all good- which makes me really wonder if I actually had a chance for a good spange.

[colt45s]

was the 25 on the leaves made by a DRUNK

[gregM]

Does anyone have experience with a real spange?

No.

To the best of my knowledge no one on the forum has one that can be prooved original.
ALSO- no one can proove the ones that some of us own are not real. The problem is that the ones that we once thought to be rare originals seem to be becomeing fairly common with a least one a month turning up on ebay. The hope is that someday a medal bar with spange that has provenance back to the original owner will turn up and set us all at ease.

Do a search for 1870 spange and you will see a lot of discussion
about these little beauties. I personally hope they turn out good.

[tegunn]

About the really only way you could know if it were real is it had some provenance, namely you're getting it from the family..and even that can be suspect..

[A H]

was the 25 on the leaves made by a DRUNK

My guess is a drunken 5 year old!