Pour le Merite value?

[Vinnie]

I was looking around the internet trying to find information on the going rate of a Blue Max and also information on variations produced in WWI.

Were different variations produced during WWI and what is the approximate price range of one in average condition with no documentation (not ground dug but not mint) and one to a documented war hero?

Thank you all in advance!

Vinnie

[Tim Tezer]

Vinnie,

That's a very broad question, and some of the answers have already been covered in the forum before. If we narrow it down to just officially awarded pieces from the time of the war (not post-war private purchase examples, etc), then we could come up with some general answers to your questions:
The going price of an unattributed awarded type, in average condition (they usually have some enamel chipping in the center) would probably be somewhere in the neighborhood of $10,000 to 12,000 U.S. The recent devaluation of the U.S. Dollar is a factor here. I believe that Detlev Niemann sold a Godet example recently for around $13,000, so the price is a moving target.

An attribution would probably add around 50% to the value, if we assume that it's a relatively "common" recipient like an infantry officer and there's no award document included.

As far as official makers are concerned, the concensus is that only three are known for certain: Wagner, Friedlander and Godet. For a long time, there was a belief that pieces marked "W" were made by Wilm, another Berlin maker. Today, however, just about everybody has agreed that the "W" must have been for Wagner, as they were the major manufacturer of Prussian orders at the time. There are known original examples that are completely unmarked, so that opens up the possibility that there may have been other makers, but nobody has been able to identify one. So if there were three makers, and all of them are known to have made examples in gold prior to the 1916 switch to silver-gilt, then that makes only six known types awarded during WWI.

That's a quick once-over, but I think it covers most of the bases.

Tim

[Vinnie]

Tim-

Thank you very much!

That was exactly what I was looking for.

Best regards,

Vinnie