Kriegsmarine Reference Thread

[Seewolf]

I thought i can make this Kriegsmarine reference thread as i am in the glad position to have the pieces complete.
They go from very early to early, only one piece is a mid one but you´ll see when you read the thread.
Please do not post any comments till i finished the whole thread, for a better overview it´s IMO necessary.




So let´s start with the minesweeper. A more common piece but still not much to find on the market at the moment.

On top is the S&L piece with the typical very early hardware from S&L. Round pin, small catch and the closed hingeblock. In the bottom of the wreath there can be found a thin vertical flaw so you can identify this one without seeing the reverse.

Bottom piece is made by Deumer. Typical Deumer pin and hardware, closed hingeblock and thin catch. The gilding is at Deumer pieces not so perfecty like S&L pieces. Mostly the highlights are not polished and the colour has more the wartime tone. Design is slightly different to S&L.

[Seewolf]

The destroyer is the next common one as these can be found as often as minesweepers.
Top one is by S&L with the typical hardware as described above. You can find these destroyers in different variants of the colour.....silver waves, blue waves. No typical flaws that makes it easier to identify the very early version only avers.

Bottom one is the Deumer piece with typical hardware as described above. The cut-outs are not as good as on S&L pieces, design is still the same. As this is the only known piece we don´t know if these ones can come in differents variants in colour or cutouts. Gilding of the wreath as usual typical wartime look.

[Seewolf]

The coastal artillery badge is a more harder to find beauty. On top as usual the piece by S&L in a fantastic quality. Note the fine details of the artillery gun. Highlights are polished here, shiny gilding and typical very early S&L hardware.

Bottom my Deumer piece. Here´s a different design that´s leads to the design of FLL (Friedrich Linden Lüdenscheid) and so easily to identify from only the avers. As usual on Deumer KM pieces the gilding has the wartime tone, look.

[Seewolf]

Now the very early high seas fleet badge by S&L. Such a piece was recently sold at ebay for 169€
Here´s the very early version with a very dark gilding without any polished highlights. That gives the badge a wonderful wartime look. S&L pieces have no typical die flaw that makes it easy to identify. But Deumer pieces are not known at the moment, only 2 Assmann pieces.
On the revers you can see that there´s no flash from the stamping process.
The early ones with wider pin have usually this flash, see pic on the bottom. A typical proof for saving money with less working steps.

[Seewolf]

The e-boat badge is one of the rarest pieces next to the Hilfskreuzer and i am glad that i am the owner of this early made piece. I know of only 1 very early piece in collections.
Typical S&L hardware and gilding, wonderful mint quality.
Highlights are slightly polished, hard to see and capture. No flashing.
These pieces are even rare as mid production pieces and i can only recommend to catch a mid one when you see it. Here too no typical die flaw to find.
One Deumer piece is known in another collection.

[Seewolf]

The blockade breaker is a wonderful piece as the difference to wartime ones is very small. Only the very little swaz is missing. This one here is an early one by S&L.The design matches NOT the wartime design from S&L, it´s a complete new die. The revers has not the typical double scratch that can be found on later pieces. Even some later early ones have this scratch. If you find a blockade breaker with out that scratch....go for it.
These ones exists from Deumer too but that one is still missing in my collection.

For comparison i show at the bottom the mid, late variant with that scratch...by now sold.

[Seewolf]

The Hilfskreuzer is IMO the rarest one of all KM awards. Even i have „only“ a mid produced one. But i bought this one as nice looking gapfiller and because of the riveted globe.
Wide catch and open hingeblock and no polished highlights on the wreath but still very nice detailled piece.
Other makers are till now not known.

[Seewolf]

U-Boat badge......

On top the S&L piece with very nice polished boat. Typical very early hardware and quality. These one are by now not so easy to find and well sought after.

The Deumer variant below is even more rare than the S&L piece. Deumer made this one in a top quality. Missing on other KM Deumer pieces.
The boat is wonderful polished, the highlights of the wreath slightly. The pin on Deumer u-boat badges is vertical.

Not much more to say on these ones. You only have to look for the setup to find the correct versions.

[Seewolf]

The u-boat clasp exist in bronce and in silver grade.
They can be found usually made by S&L, Deumer variants are not known, only one piece by Assmann is known in another collection. I´ll show variants by S&L and a rare version by Souval, L/58 marked.
The clasps in very early or early variant have usually a die flaw on the rights veins. It´s only a small one and not really good to see on pics. The clasps are not known with a wide pin like very early CCC´s and so we think that this setup shown here is the earliest version.
The cutouts can be different, especially under the flag and around the periscope. The same is for the outer lines, the earliest versions follow the lines of the veins very well while later ones are more straight cut out.
The Souval version is marked L/58 on the pin and uses the early die from S&L !

[Seewolf]

silver S&L and Souval L/58

[Seewolf]

The navy clasp can be found in bronce and silver grade but only the bronce version is a real 57er as the silver version still wasn´t founded by Grossadmiral Dönitz.
Known are versions by S&L and Souval. Deumer variants may exist but wasn´t discovered till yet.

Attention: Versions with a long round needle that looks like a Deumer one are made by Souval in the 70s !!

You can find S&L´s navy clasp with a wide pin or a smaller one like on u-boat clasps. The wide pin version is the earliest made. There´s a big die flaw running around the whole clasp. Early Souvals have a more square needle and are marked L/58 on the pin or clasp.

[Seewolf]

The Ehrentafelspange is a very nice looking baby but hard to judge when it was made or by which maker. Earliest versions may have original EK II ribbon and always 4 prongs.
There are late versions out with only 2 prongs and missing burnishing on the anchor and wreath.

[Seewolf]

That´s all for now, many thanks.
I hope you enjoy my little excourse to the Kriegsmarine awards in 57er version and i am happy when i could answer some questions that you asked yourself for longer.

Thanks for interest and looking, friends

[Tom C.]

The blockade breaker is a wonderful piece as the difference to wartime ones is very small. Only the very little swaz is missing. This one here is an early one by S&L.The design matches NOT the wartime design from S&L, it´s a complete new die. The revers has not the typical double scratch that can be found on later pieces. Even some later early ones have this scratch. If you find a blockade breaker with out that scratch....go for it.
These ones exists from Deumer too but that one is still missing in my collection.

For comparison i show at the bottom the mid, late variant with that scratch...by now sold.

fantastic thread very interesting ihave a question concerning the blockade breaker does anyone know why those scratches on the back suddenly appear on the later awards and why the area around the funnel is cut out on later ones but solid on early when usually its the other way round (pab) for instance cut out for early solid for late

regards
tom

[Karl S]

When looking at these badges, I think it´s time for me to stop hunt for medalbars and find some nice "boats" instead..

very nice thread!
Karl