Show me a 1957 Knight Cross, but not S&L

[Luftm40]

this part is a bit older..

[Brien]

Scarcity in early RKs

What IS the deal with scarcity of early 57 RKs??????? I've seena few of the late model ones ones go for over $400.00!!!! Are they now really that hard to find????? Hope not. I am still looking for a quality early model and I am quite willing to pay 4 to 600 for it, but NOT for a mass produced collector piece. The way it's going now, the price of even the 57 RKs are going to shoot skyhigh and not be affordable for the normal folk just like the real RKs. I for one cannot afford and probably never will be able to afford a real RK. Hopefully I won't have to bow out of the hobby again.

So, that being said...I'll plug....before things go nuts....anyone have a quality early RK they'd care to sell?????

[Ed Tainton]

Knights Cross



I talk to a few vets who joined the New German Army and they said they were not worried about purchasing a new 57 Knights Cross. Most had come out of a POW camp and had no money and had to feed their families. Many purchased cheaper repos. This guy had kept his original paper clip (marked 65-800) and wore it (repo)with the swastica reversed. It looks like a dripping ring repos. He later purchased 57 German Cross,57 Honour Roll and other awards de-nazified or 57. From the picture he did not like reversing it.You can see his original paper clip mounted on his O/L.

[Ed Tainton]

Knights Cross

In the late 50's I helped out at our Government museum and I know they had 3 or 4 early 57 Knight Crosses. They had purchased them from a coin dealer. Taken into account that veterans returning from the war had not sold too many of their souviniers, museums needed something on hand, so they turned to the 57 RK. How many museums etc are there ? Thousands of them. Maybe they ran out of them (also the Schinkle) and the dies wore out. I know how hard it was in those day to purchase a RK souvenier from a Canadian vet. $200.00 was a good price for an original but money was hard to come by in those days. Investors always stock piled for their retirement years putting original war souveniers in their deposit boxes. My explaination may not seem plausable but its one of many.

[Henri S]

Here is an early Zimmermann frame rk.

[Henri S]

the back

[Peter Wiking]

Excelent cross bugibbian.

Thanks for sharing
Peter Wiking

[Henri S]

and it came with oakleaves and ribbon (which does not glow under black light).

[Edgar Estrada]

Left is a Schickle 57 Knights Cross, right a Steinhauer. Notice the Schickle is also bigger.

HI

Which of these two crosses has the official size of the award? (if there was any official size).

Thanks

Edgar

[Edgar Estrada]

are all the Schilkle crosses bigger than the S&L RKs?

Regards

Edgar

[Mike Kenny]

Hi Edgar,

The official size was the TR official size of 48 mm x 48 mm (54 mm including the eyelet). As both the early 57RK S&L and Schickle frames were both produced from wartime dies, and the Schickle is a slightly bigger cross (49.3 mm wide v's S&L 48.7 mm wide) then a Schickle should always be bigger than an S&L.

Regards
Mike

[markus]

My Otto Schickle which has been sleeping in my collection for year until the day members of this forum opened my eyes!