Selling 3rd Reich collection to begin collecting Imperial

[AndyD]

Hello!,
after much thought i've decided to part with my 3rd reich awards to concentrate on Imperial awards and medals,mainly due to the fact that the number of fakes in the field of Imperial awards is nothing like the amount that exist in the 3rd Reich field(or so i've been lead to believe!).
What i want to know is if anyone out there could give me any pointers about known fakes that exist in the Imperial field,also which (if any ) reference works would you recommend that i buy?
Thanking you all in anticipation,
Kind Regards,
yorkie

PS any other info you can give me regarding Imperial awards and medals would be greatly appreciated too!

[Justin]

Yorkie what kind of thrid reich awards will you be selling? make sure to list them in the estand of private message me =]

[Rick Research]

<marquee behavior=alternate>Congratulations!!!!</marquee>


Another recruit saved from The Dark Side!

Now, unlike the boring 12 years of ugly zinky junk, there is over a hundred years of beautiful, crisply designed stuff from over two dozen semi-independent states and the Imperial government to choose from, so first thing you need to do is decide where you want to focus:

WWI, a specific state (like our Saxonmaniac Stogie-Rick), specific awards (Iron Crosses or whatever), etc etc etc.

It is literally impossible to get "everything," so a bit of tweaking before you start will get you off to a better start.

Virtually all of the reference literature is out of print. Some is not-- I just got an outstanding book on Saxon Orders a couple of months back, with amazing detail.

So, your thoughts on where YOU would like to start, then we can help better! Rick

[AndyD]

Hello again!
firstly thanks to Rick for his reply.I was thinking about collecting a cross section of Imperial awards,and possibly concentrating on different makers of the EK 2.I'm operating on a limited budget so high end awards are out just for now!
Kind Regards,
yorkie

[PaulChep]

1914 EK2 collecting can be fun. There is over 45 known makers of the 1914 EK2, some are easy to get "KO" and some are hard to get "WILM". The price is also usually reasonable $20-25. Good Luck.

[Tom Y]

Finally getting some sense, huh? Welcome to our world.
If you decide on EKII's besides the different makers there are core variations, i.e. size and position of the different elements, variatons in the crowns, etc. Then there are variations in material and even different stamps from the same maker. There are at least 2 sizes of KO stamp. I have over 100 and very few duplications. Once you get hooked you'll want a doc or 2 to go with them, maybe some photos, then cases, then the ephemera like cups, pipes, paper weights, etc. Next come the EKI's with even more variations. I could go on forever. The only drawback is they make a pretty monotonous display to the layman.

[JensF.]

Hello yorkie and WELCOME!!!

A very good decision to change zinc into silver and iron
or bronze, copper, tombak, GOLD...

If you need informations about EKII makers, let me know.

Greetings from Germany

[McCulloh]

Yorkie: Eeee by Gum lad, welcome to the club!
Regarding your collecting of imperial items, be aware that there are "fakes" out there right now and there have been for over 30 years. Go to ebay and check out the German section and you'll see a number of repro EK2s advertised as such- and a number of medals being sold which are Repro but not being sold honestly.
Even here there are minefields, but still not as overwhelmingly many.
The range of fakes for World war one items ranges from superb to awful. Obviously, the EK 1 and EK2 have been the most heavily reproduced, but also many of the orders and Freikorps awards (notibly the Iron Roland, the Ehrhardt Brigade badge, the Baltic cross and even my beloved Silesian Eagle.
There is an "infamous" so-called 1957 cheapo, non-magnetic, poorly-painted, version of the EK2, which many firms in Germany made for vets up until a few years ago under state license. Although some people regard these as legitimate, i do not.
I recently purchased a 4 piece group from a medal chap in Arkansas which had a fake, shiny, cast Lippe war medal (Rick was kind and did not snigger too loudly) and -to which I am still reeling, a "fake" Franz Josef commemorative medal (I still just can't quite get my mind around that one).
A good rule of thumb is avoid cast items and beware "solid" and soft items-as with the Third Reich stuff.
Also, beware of rarer awards that are too shiney and first thing-go get a hand-held blacklight to test the ribbons.
I collect EK2 groups-mostly to N.C.O.s and Gefreiters. This is, to my mind, one of the safer areas, because the expertise and skill required to put together a really good fake medal bar (with old ribbon and a two piece metal brace or even moth-eaten backing cloth) is limited to maybe a score of people today. MOST of these folks don't waste their time on the lowly EK2, Bavarian MMC3 with swords, HK with swords combinations, so they are the safest to start with. However, having said that there are a number of fakes-even smaller ones, showing up today.
A great book still available is Priveteras' THE IRON TIME, for the Iron Cross.
Bavarian awards are the most fun I think, because there were so many given and there is a lot of diversity with them. Also, the Bavarian archives are easier to research (and more fun during Oktoberfest) than many of the East german landerstaatarchivs (Rick can say more on that issue).
Lastly, if the Thrid Reich bug still has you, you will almost certainly encounter "cheap" groups from 1914-1940 that have at least one of maybe even three of four Third Reich awards on them. Thus, you can trace the career of a chap.
A prime example was on a dealers' website which had an Ek2, Prussian Ehrenzeichen medal, HK with swords, Silesian eagle, Prussian LS15, Nazi state service 25 years, Austrian Anschluss award, NASDAP 10 year award, Luftschutz 2nd-and a Hungarian 1914-1918 commemorative (not in that order). Probably an "old sweat" Prussian N.C.O. who survived the war and fought with the Freikorps, went to work for the state and joined the party in @1930-31 and became a local Kreisleiter. This bar, ratty as it was, went for only @$225-the same price as an 1939 EK1.
Cheers,
JeMc
oh and p.s. as an additional bonus, you may often find items that are grossly underpriced by marginal dealers-because they do not know what they have. I once bought a Hohenzollern House Order (silver wearing copy, but superb) with swords out in Utah for $5.00 because it was ina junk jewelry box attached to a charm bracelet.