Authentication Help Please

[nonsence]

I am admittedly very new to this hobby. In fact I just became interested three days ago. I am currently living in Berlin and purchased this 2nd class iron cross yesterday. I was hoping to get some help ensuring it is authentic. It is unmarked with the exception of a %4 on the ring. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Frank Heukemes]

Dear Nonsence (doesn´t that sound great!)

Welcome to the hobby and this site.

What you have bought is an original cross by maker 24 (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Hanauer Plakettenhersteller). Sometimes the 2 of 24 is a bit misprinted on the crosses by that maker, but the characteristics like date and wide outer rim strongly speak for that maker. Most of his crosses have ANOTHER mark on the SMALL ring that often goes unnoticed which is in most cases an acorn.

Here are pics of a 24, check my 24 mark (similar misprint as yours) and the little acorn mark on the small ring.

[Frank Heukemes]

reverse

[Frank Heukemes]

acorn on small ring

[George Stimson]

The cross looks fine to me, but if I could make a couple of suggestions about future picture postings....

"Art shots" of reclining medals might aesthetically pleasing, but they really don't help much in identifying.
And, please keep your pictures at a reasonable size (72 dpi and 560 pixels wide is good enough). People are less likely to want to evaluate your items if the pics take forever to appear....

[Peter Wiking]

Peter Wiking

[nonsence]

Thanks for your prompt replies! My cross does indeed have the small acorn imprint. I just didn't realize it was an acorn, I thought it was an imperfection in the metal! Also, I will make my pics smaller.

BTW, what do you think the cross is worth? I paid 80 euro for it.

Dear Nonsence (doesn´t that sound great!)

Welcome to the hobby and this site.

What you have bought is an original cross by maker 24 (Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Hanauer Plakettenhersteller). Sometimes the 2 of 24 is a bit misprinted on the crosses by that maker, but the characteristics like date and wide outer rim strongly speak for that maker. Most of his crosses have ANOTHER mark on the SMALL ring that often goes unnoticed which is in most cases an acorn.

Here are pics of a 24, check my 24 mark (similar misprint as yours) and the little acorn mark on the small ring.

[Frank Heukemes]

80 EUR is acceptable, I hope you got a ribbon with it.

[nonsence]

Yeah, I got the original ribon with blood stain and all.

80 EUR is acceptable, I hope you got a ribbon with it.

[Olav]

Nice cross, and welcome to the forum

Cheers

[nonsence]

The guy I got this from literally has a box full of them. If I were to go back and look through the rest of them, is there anything special I should try to find. I chose this cross because the black was quite clean and solid and the "silver" wasn't excessively tarnished. He also has just about every other award I have seen in the few catalogs I looked through.

Thanks

Nice cross, and welcome to the forum

Cheers

[TerryG]

Ek2 24

You should look for a cross with a round top on the "3" of 1939. Also a Schinkel type would be worth having. If you do a search here for these 2 types (round three or schinkel) you will find plenty of data and photos.

Good one about the acorn mark Frank I have had a look at my "24" and there is a small mark on the small ring although it is too faint to tell what it is. I also thought it was an age mark of some kind. This hobby is so interesting isn't it? And this forum is b....y good, well worth the money and more! Where else would you find such info if this did not exist?