An "interesting" EK1....

[Mike Kenny]

....I'm sure you'll hate it but.....

....obverse....

[Mike Kenny]

....Reverse....

[ben bijker]

mike, I don"t like this one ...
There are lots of L/16 marked crosses around at the moment that are "made of left-over/rejected parts"...

I believe this is one of them.

Lack of detail to the frame, uneven swas and crappy date.
I would pass on this one, IMO it's not good.

The soft, round corners on the reverse are the other big give-away.

Regards,
Ben

[Robert P.]

I agree. The frame itself is not an S&L.

[Douglas 5]

The same here ....

[grueni1208]

It's a well known fake.
There are EK II's, too.

Regards

Daniel

[WEISNER]

The faker tried to make this interesting with the double maker marks, Odd the they are different with the one on the pin having a jumping 6!
Kevin

[Mike Kenny]

Gents,

Don't worry, I was under no illusion that this was a wartime example when it arrived - imo it is definitely post-war.

Now, here's the thing... it came in a nice case with an April 45 dated listing of the veteran's awards, directly from the family in Germany. The interesting thing is that the following statement is imo not correct....

.....The frame itself is not an S&L.....

The frame actually IS a very good match to S&L (when the "subdued" ribbing is taken into account), as is the core (when the damage to the date is taken into account). Based on the die wear shown by the ribbon on this example, and comparing to several S&L 57ers in my collection, I'd date this repro in the 70s. Imo it was made from the original wartime S&L dies, but well towards the end of their life, either as one of their "under the counter" examples for vets or it was done by whoever bought their old dies when the replacement dies for the 57ers were introduced.

One other smalt point, the main pin, although not finished at the top like wartime examples, is an exact profile match for earlier S&L EK1 min pins. There are even indications that the shear marks on the main pin matches earlier wartime examples.

That's why it's interesting imo!

Regards
Mike

PS: for the record, the two L/16 stamps are actually the same, it's just that the one on the pin has been stamped evenenly - much heavier on the left compared to the right. WHY an L/16 stamp would be added is anyone's guess.

[Robert P.]

Here is S&L frame. IMO, it has little in common with the cross that opened this thread. But, that's just me. The inner beading is altogether different...

[Mike Kenny]

....The inner beading is altogether different...

That's just it, the inner beading characteristics are exactly the same on the example above - the dies at the time were very worn and the features are subdued.

Regards
Mike

[Robert P.]

I'm sorry, Mike, I'm just not in agreement. S&L's have some very dominant features that other frames just don't have; circled is one ...

[Mike Kenny]

Some close-up scans.

First, a group shot;

Top left: later 57er
Top right: early 57er
Bottom right: earlier 39er
Bottom left: repro

Regards
Mike

[Mike Kenny]

Some inner beading close-ups, same positions as above.

[Robert P.]

Nice work, Mike.

[grueni1208]

Here is the EK II counterpart fake.

Regards

Daniel