Fake West Wall ribbon/medal ?

[Jokka]

I just got a West Wall medal with ribbon, the ribbon looks new and it glows like a Christmas tree under UV light.

So is it fake ?

Any chance the medal is fake as well ?

[mrg]

Hi Jokka medal is a good zinker , ribbon is a good repro which is fairly common with these awards.

[Jokka]

Anyone knowing why these repro WW ribbons are so common ?

[Valter Gorenc]

Anyone knowing why these repro WW ribbons are so common ?

Because original ribbons are scarce Seriously, I've heard several times that there was a find of 30.000 (yes!) or so of these medals, unissued, in some closed medal factory, in early 1990s, if I remember. They were without ribbons, so medals are abundant, but ribbons not.

[wschmidt]

Yes, these new ribbon is common. Of the last 6 Westwall that I bought, only 2 had original ribbons.

[CWP]

I bought one of these years ago from a very good source. I do believe it came from a veteran estate. It was one of the ones in the Carl Poellath packets. The ribbon glows as the example above. I suspect it might be original. I know that the consensus is that the glowing ribbons are not real. However, the Westwall ribbons that glow otherwise look very real; they do not look like other fakes I have seen. Also, a very experienced Imperial award collector once told me that some WWI ribbons (original) will glow. If UV reactive ribbons existed in WWI, why not in WWII as well? I am not convinced either way.