Read again prorege1´s words if you do not believe mine:
Wise words, it has been known among collectors (and good dealers) since I started collecting that the Memel fakes are among the best ones. The good versus fake comparison that Detlev recently posted is not his invention and certainly not a new insight. It is collector´s LORE since decades.
It is only natural that people who own these (excellent, by now with excellent natural patina) fakes go into denial mode when faced with the facts that they surprisingly have not heard about yet. And please forget what you see in books like Forman´s and the like. No book is really bad, but every book upto now has mistakes, even the best ones.
Everybody should learn that you do not just buy Narvik shields, Krim shields, Demjansk shields and Memel medals just because they look "original enough". The best fakes are not to be found among the highly priced Luftwaffe badges, Knights Crosses and the like. These are easy peasy to spot if you know your speciality. Excellent fakes which can fool the oldest collectors can instead be found exactly in that group of shileds and medals I mentioned and unless you do not know what makes a fake shield, you will most certainly find a bad one, because orginal shields and Memel medals are MUCH rarer than you think when strolling through a show. Almost all of what you see is crap.
Nobody will get flamed in here. If you are happy with your stuff, so be it. None of my business. And I mean that.
And of course there are different makers of Memel medals and there are slight differences BUT if you own a medal that looks like he one shown by Detlev, you have a dud. And some people in this thread have one like that. Be your own judge. And an even outer rim won´t save you, most of the fakes have even outer rims, and I think Detelv´s fake has one too it might just be a lighting effect that gives the impression it might be uneven. At least the reverse looks very even on all sides.
I know, I owned this one for more than 25 years - even when I aquired this medal it was almost impossible to find an original, it has not become easier over the years..
It is only natural that people who own these (excellent, by now with excellent natural patina) fakes go into denial mode when faced with the facts that they surprisingly have not heard about yet. And please forget what you see in books like Forman´s and the like. No book is really bad, but every book upto now has mistakes, even the best ones.
Everybody should learn that you do not just buy Narvik shields, Krim shields, Demjansk shields and Memel medals just because they look "original enough". The best fakes are not to be found among the highly priced Luftwaffe badges, Knights Crosses and the like. These are easy peasy to spot if you know your speciality. Excellent fakes which can fool the oldest collectors can instead be found exactly in that group of shileds and medals I mentioned and unless you do not know what makes a fake shield, you will most certainly find a bad one, because orginal shields and Memel medals are MUCH rarer than you think when strolling through a show. Almost all of what you see is crap.
Nobody will get flamed in here. If you are happy with your stuff, so be it. None of my business. And I mean that.
And of course there are different makers of Memel medals and there are slight differences BUT if you own a medal that looks like he one shown by Detlev, you have a dud. And some people in this thread have one like that. Be your own judge. And an even outer rim won´t save you, most of the fakes have even outer rims, and I think Detelv´s fake has one too it might just be a lighting effect that gives the impression it might be uneven. At least the reverse looks very even on all sides.
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