EK2 Runder Drei..opinions and info wanted

[jeetley]

hi guys...when i started collecting 20 months ago i recall the dealer who i have most of my items from mentioning iron cross's with a curly "3" and he said they were rare..
after browsing the net earlier this week i found one for sale...its price is 265euro
so first of all i'll put the pics up off the site and secondly how does the price sit with you fellers ?

also its not maker marked so were they made only by one maker or several?
any info you can provide me with would be great as i'm wondering why they existed and why they ceased?
thanks in advance
Brian

[jeetley]

more pics

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[jeetley]

,,

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[CMSgt]

R3

Yours appears to be the Thick style of round 3. I am not up todate on prices as mine cost less than what you stated. Jim

[sanya13]

I agree with Jim this is a Thick variant

[boch_62]

Nice Round 3

If you can weigh the cross ...

Regards
Jarek

[Douglas 5]

Yes Brian a nice R3 .
The thick R3s are not all the same weight . All the frames are from the same master but the different cores make me think more than one maker may have been involved ?
Not enough were made for one maker to wear out 2 or 3 core dies . The round 3 we find only very early on ... probably some one in Berlin did not like it and it was changed to a flat top 3 ??
The weight/ thick frames are with out a doubt up there . Most EK2s are in the 18 to 21 gram range , so again probably to standardsize the over all cross weight ?
Regardless of all the regulations EK2s did get lighter twords the end - brought on by conservation measures of metals elsewhere needed for the war .
Deschler made the heaviest regular EK2 to start with which also got lighter . All manufacturers had to take the stamping sheets at the thickness the regime decided on .
This forced the makers to replace some of their tooling to adjust to the thinner sheets as not to destroy the fragile hardened dies .


Douglas

[boch_62]

Hi Douglas,

I really like Your explanation - logical

Jarek

[jeetley]

thanks for your opinions guys...after a bit of thought i decided to buy the cross and once it arrives i will get it weighed..thanks again
brian

[jeetley]

Nice Round 3

If you can weigh the cross ...

Regards
Jarek

it is 23.3 grams