The 333 MM 2cl IC

[schönbeck]

Well I know that its considered to be a fake.
BUT has anyone located the source?
Looking at different 333 marked and unmarked crosses they all seem to vary a little bit. Some are like new with much defects on different parts of the body, ie the lower 3 oclock flaw, some are of much higher quality and tends to have almost none of these effects.
Is ist possible that original tools has been used? Or that even some unmarked crosses are original and from some unknow or unattributed maker? The tools would have been used over and over again and therefor getting more and more detoriated over the years.
The 333 makermark are surely fake and thats not something we need to talk about.

Like we all know at the end of the war, quality was not as good as from the start.

So if noone has tested them in some way, who condemned them?

[coastie]

The 333 makermark are surely fake and thats not something we need to talk about.

Like we all know at the end of the war, quality was not as good as from the start.

So if noone has tested them in some way, who condemned them?

I'm not sure what you mean here you are contradicting yourself. First you say 333 is a fake but are also asking if they were tested to see if they are fake or not? Even if they were made with original dies they are still fake.

[Bob Hritz]

About a decade back, two French speaking individuals were selling the 333 marked Iron Crosses 2nd Class, at the Great Western Show in Pomona, California. I bought several, all in the envelopes (unmarked as to maker). Each had the proper original ribbon. It was not until years had passed that these were determined to be copies. I still do not know the source, but they fooled me. Of course, my old eyes failed to notice the extremely high number of the mark, 333, which should have caught my attention sooner. Back in those days, they were 'just Iron Crosses' and I would have never believed they were worth copying, for so little money.

Bob Hritz

[schönbeck]

I say that they are considered fakes, but I dont know.
I do believe that the makermark, 333, is bogus.
BUT if they use original dies there should be a original cross, right?
An old stock could have been found like they found loads of mint mm 100 crosses.
I'm not claiming anything, I just want to know.

[coastie]

Even though the frames and cores could have been made from old dies it does not lessen the fact that 333 was not a valid maker. Somewhere there is/was an article somewhere on the net about the history of these and speculation as to where they came from. For all we know they are still being made.

Check out this thread I did a while back

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...&highlight=333

[Peter Wiking]

schönbeck
It is possible that a set of genuine dietools was found and used.

I searched the entire forum about these "333" and "666" marked crosses. It looks like they started to show up in great numbers from around 1990 and on. The source is said to be England. Spain turned up as distributor and that it came in batches of 50. The 666 is supposed to be the birthday (June 66) of the man in England who produced them.

Cheers.
Peter