S&L RKs

[Jody]

Hi Guys,
I wish to say a few words about the S&L RK. I happen to own a real example hallmarked 4 935.

I have noticed many mint examples on the market lately. I have seen many 800 as well as 4 935 hallmarked pieces. I will say this, while the frames may be identical I have noticed a difference in the cores.

The dates on my example has very high and nicely rounded numbers. I have seen two mint 4 935 pieces in the past year that have been given the thumbs up by several well known dealers, yet the numbers on these pieces are more flat and not as pronounced.

While the example in my collection is by no means mint I would not trade it for the mint cased examples shown to me.

Has anybody else noticed this as well?
Regards,
Jody

[ChrisJ]

Hi Jody.
Do you have any images of this cross ?

[Dave Kane]

Pictures!!

Now that is a frightful thought...please show a pic as soon as possible OR is it merely a question of the "strike" and condition of the dies for stamping the iron cores?
John

[Bruce Simcox]

The strike...

....I am assuming John, that you are inferring here, that the dies were wearing and that, as a result, different charachteristics appeared in the iron cores as a result of this worn condition of the dies.

I think perhaps that the answer is not merely a question of the "strike" and a 'condition of the dies', but in another direction.

I say this because an iron core is much weaker than the die used to create it's final shape.

I think that it is helpful to remember that it would take quite a lot of use to weaken and wear the dies that were used to create the iron cores for RK's produced (and in fairly modest numbers) during the Third Reich era.

I will go further and venture that the dies used to create the iron cores could probably have produced 10 times or better the amount of cores that they did, due to the inherent toughness of the metal used to create the dies.

I would say then, that the dies were either destroyed/damaged somehow and then replaced, or we are dealing with postwar FAKES.

How many companies produced less than 100 RK's?
How many companies produced more than 100 RK's?

I think that if one were to look at the figures relating to the number of companies producing RK's, how many RK's were actually produced and then awarded (include copies too) we would see that die wear couldn't really be a problem, unless extremely inferior grades of steel were used to create the dies in the first place.

The Ritterkreuz was, culturally, a very prestigious award, and for a company to have been involved in it's production would have been a very prestigious honor in it's own right. Therefore, it would seem ludicrous for a company to even consider using inferior methods to create an RK.

Or perhaps I am misinterpreting the metallurigal efficiency of the Ruhr industries of the Third Reich era.

Just a thought.

As usual this is my own opinion on this matter.

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Bruce