Kuban Arm Shield, Opinions please

[Bill M]

--Of course I am no pro at these, but what IS the consensus on the 'pronged' Kubans?
--I believe that the only ones I've seen worth a damn had the edge tabs and that this was a debatable issue. Am I remembering wrong?

[ERIC S.]

KUBAN

Hi Paul,
Mine has the 4 prongs to the reverse - Please see the attached address for pic.
http://ourworld.cs.com/Ewstallhelm/kuban+back.jpg
ERIC

[Dez H]

Many thanks goes out to Mark, Tim and Eric, your shields are great. The sharpness and detail is superb. The piece I have here has the 4 prongs on the reverse, non convex. Being magnetic it must be steel or brass. I am lead to believe that all early issue pieces are stamped out of zinc and slightly convex in shape? And a key to picking the repos is they are stamped out of tombat or similar alloy. Looking at all the pictures there does indeed appear to be at least two distinctive variations. Look closely at the way the letting is formed and the two forms of attachment to the backing. Some have the 4 prongs while others have the tabs. As each recipient received 5 pieces, millions of these things would have had to be made, so more than one maker is very plausible.


Dez

[moranimal]

While we're at it ...

... please notice the '4' in '43'. The reproductions will have the left triangular line ('/') end straight above the right edge of the perpendicular line ('l') on the right side of the four. On the original, the left triangular line comes up a little short.

[Tim B.]

Mark,

I sent him PICS of my Heer Kuban and not the Luftwaffe Krim, though he did get a group shot of the three

I was always under the impression that the early issue Kuban shields were iron bronze (magnetic) and convexed. It was the later issue shields that were made of an alloy or zinc metal and had the bronze wash over that.

As far as edge tabs vs vertical prongs, mine is of the tab design, iron bronze and convexed. I have also seen them with the vertical prongs like on the earlier Krim shields.
Tim