Cloth German Cross in Silver

[Gary Symonds]

2

[Dietrich Maerz]

The wreath looks surely very odd. never seen such a bad example. Could be cast. the reminder of the cross, however, is ok!

[Giel VW]

New wreath on a good cross.

[Jon. H]

New wreath on a good cross.

Was thinking the same. Guessing the cross was most likely gold in first place?

[Gary Symonds]

Here are some closeups of the "1941" in the wreath. The "9" has the die flaw that is to be expected on a 2nd pattern Juncker wreath for cloth badges. It matches the "9" in "The German Cross" at page 275. Also depicted is the wire bordering the swas, and the ends of the star, as requested. I believe this cloth badge matches the silver cloth cross at page 318. The silver metal wreath is poor workmanship, which the Germans supposedly never did. But like all humans, they did.

[Gary Symonds]

Was thinking the same. Guessing the cross was most likely gold in first place?

Gentlemen:
As Dietrich Maerz pointed out in his book at page 316, any change of wreath "can be dismissed", if the backing paper is intact. As shown in my previous pic, the reverse backing paper is intact.

[Dietrich Maerz]

Could it be that the original wreath was snapped off? Can you see how this wreath is attached?
And I agree: there is no sign of tempering with the reverse. But that wreath does not look like a stamped part. It has even small holes! And the 1942 is terrible. Looks like a very bad casting!

[Darrell]

Could it be that the original wreath was snapped off? Can you see how this wreath is attached?
And I agree: there is no sign of tempering with the reverse. But that wreath does not look like a stamped part. It has even small holes! And the 1942 is terrible. Looks like a very bad casting!

Looks like it's zinc as well?

[Gary Symonds]

4

looks like it's zinc as well?

[Gary Symonds]

3

[Gary Symonds]

2

[Gary Symonds]

2

[Gary Symonds]

Gentlemen:
Here are side views of the wreath of the silver cloth cross. There is evidence of die strike marks present. The attachment of the wreath does not show a replacement and the paper backing has not been tampered with. I don't know what metal this was struck from. Maybe zinc, it makes no difference. If you will look very closely at the cloth examples shown in Dietrich's book, small pock marks and holes are clearly depicted, they are just smaller. This is an original die struck cloth cross, with as I said before, the worst strike of a wreath in Juncker's history. We know it is Juncker, because of the die flaw plainly visible in the "9". In addition, the 13 little vertical lines are above the "1941", as they should be per the book.

[Don D.]

Nothing is plainly visible on that wreath except the grind marks to get rid of the casting line.

[Don D.]

Bend back the cloth and look to see if the wreath is hollow or solid.