Relic DKiS

[ZacharyB]

Greetings all,

I have been asked to evaluate this DKiS for a friend who is considering purchasing it. As far as I can tell, it shows indications of being a good late production Deschler and Sohn. It weighs in at 36 grams and that is quite light, even for the light weight version. However, I attribute the very low weight to the fact that one of the disks is missing from the piece. I'm always a bit suspicious of these types of ground-find awards where the damage is just sufficient to render identification/authentication difficult but not sooooo terrible that the item is pure junk. On top of that, he's told that it comes out of Poland. Nothing against our friends from that neck of the woods, but quite a number of good fakes have been found in the soil of Poland. Apparently, it is quite a cash crop over there. I believe he was given an asking price of something in the neighborhood of $650 for this piece. That seems high to me for a relic in this condition, but I could be wrong. Any opinions will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Z

[ZacharyB]

Anyone have thoughts on this one?

[Yubari]

as a metal detectorist myself I am not fan of this. It definitely looks as artificially aged but in the way that it still looks good.. not the way it really work in ground..

[ZacharyB]

You said it. I really want to tell my mate that he's found a good piece but my gut says no. The obverse looks correct to me, but that doesn't count for much since I had to do a crash course in DK identification yesterday. However, I have an extensive collection of relic/ground dug Iron Crosses. As you say, this one does not look natural to me. I hesitate to say that it has been chemically treated to "age" the piece, but I think something other than poor storage and time has happened to this piece. Beyond that, it is my understanding that, while the DKiG and DKiS were parallel awards on the civil/military front, the DKiG took precedence in the case of both awards being issued to the same individual. I'd expect battlefield found pieces to naturally belong to combat officers and men. Am I wrong to assume that almost any combat soldier who earned the DKiS would likewise have the DKiG? If that assumption is correct, he should be wearing his DKiG on the battlefield, not the DKiS. I suppose that anything is possible, but I just find it unlikely that a DKiS would find it's way onto a battlefield to be lost and then ground-dug 75+ years later. I've browsed my photo archive and out of many pictures of DK holders in the field, I can not find a single one who is wearing a DKiS on his combat tunic. Does that train of thought make sense? On the one hand, to my eye, the obverse looks good. But then I'm seeing two major red flags in the strange aging/damage to this cross and the general circumstances of a DKiS being lost on the battlefield at all.

Regards and Thanks Men,

Z

P.S. Sorry if the large font is bad form. I've misplaced my good glasses and the default font is almost too small for me to read!

[AndyC]

From those pictures I say no, it´s not a good cross based on those pictures


Andy

[ItsWillCmp]

The assumption that someone who won the Deutsches Kreuz in Silber on the front would also have likely won the Deutsches Kreuz in Gold is not accurate.
The "front" related DKiS that I have seen are related to communications and logistical/transport accomplishments. Here is a snippet of a recommendation document for a DKiS below that shows why someone might win the award.

DKiSrecc.JPG
""...In the course of difficulties, by means of enemy action, terrain, or weather, Major Klaffke, through his art of improvisation, found great resoluteness and rapid adaptability at all times, which enabled the leadership to lead the troops in wide spaces. Under his leadership, 4,603 km of cable and 1,643 switches were installed by the Nacht. Abt since the beginning of the Eastern Campaign, 6,436 disturbances were eliminated and 51,000 radio talks were exchanged..."
(Source: The Collector's Guild)

Anything can be found on the battlefield but its a lot less likely to find a DKiS in combat positions than a DKiG I would imagine, but not for the reason you gave. The DKiG was awarded at the least, 20 times more than the DKiS.
Cheers,
W

[ZacharyB]

Thank you for the information W. I was operating with the understanding that the DKiS was more of a political/civil award and thus less likely to be awarded to combat personnel. Then in instances when a person held both awards, only the DKiG would be worn. The result being that finding a DKiS on a battlefield would be highly unlikely. Thank you all for the feedback. I am inclined to advise my buddy against purchasing this piece for the reasons discussed here.

For my own curiosity, can anyone tell if this is a completely known reproduction that has been aged? I had really thought that the obverse of the DK stood a good chance of being genuine. I speculated that perhaps someone took that single good component, bought a reproduction DKiS, disassembled and aged the reproduction, and then used a combination of original and reproduction parts to create this "ground-dug" Frankenstein sort of DKiS. Just wondering how close I might be to the mark on this one.

Thank You All,

Z

[Byakkotai]

It is a fake. Terrible fake. Aged or not....it is a fake. Nothing correct there. Absolutely fake.
Ricardo