Is this authentic? - Wehrmacht 4 Year Service Medal

[kaiiser.kiing]

Hi.
I bought this from the site Uk-Militaria. I have used this site 6 or 7 times now, but i still hve my doubts about a lot of his items.

I ordered the 4 Year Service Medal and Bronze Close Combat Clasp, both with their certificates. Addressed to a Hauptmann/Major Ludwig Faust of the Grossdeutschland Division. This cost me £236.

I'm not in any doudt about the Clasp or Certificates, but the Service Medal...

I have provided pictures, i'm new here so i hope they work right. I am sorry about my woeful camera, but i did my best.

Both the medal and the little eagle are slightly magnetic. However, the front of the medal and the ribbon are literally spotless. Perfect in fact. It looks actually like it has been dipped in something to paint or clean it. The back, the side with the '4', as you can't see in the picture, is a bit grubby inside the wreath when you reflect the light off it.

The certificate is real, that's a fact. It's quite dirty, lots of blotches, and there's a finger-print or two on it.
It is signed, along with the other one, by the Commander of the Armed Forces, and the signature is real.

I nearly forgot. One of the big reasons i have to question the authenticity is that the Service Medal has no maker-mark. I am not an expert in any way, and do not have anything else to compare it to, but i am fairly certain that most if not all medals have some form of maker-mark. Usually somewhere on the ribbon ring. However this one does not.
Lastly - I tried to photograph this; The small loop on the top of the medal is slightly crooked. Just slightly.

Please tell you what you think. I was not too concerned about this because to the best of my knowledge this is a relatively cheap and common medal. And before i bought it i contacted the seller and he assured me it was genuine. But i know for a fact he sells fakes. You can see for yourself on UK-Militaria.com that he has an abbundance of Polizei(spelling?), Wehrmacht, and SS helmets. SS being ultra-rare as far as i know, and he sells them for a few hundred pounds each.

I bought this mainly for the Grossdeutschland certificates. It is a good item to own. GD being the elite of the German Army.


THANKS IN ADVANCE. Any questions let me know.

------Here'd the pictures:
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...k/SUNP0271.jpg
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...k/SUNP0270.jpg
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...k/SUNP0268.jpg
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...k/SUNP0267.jpg
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...k/SUNP0266.jpg
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...k/SUNP0265.jpg
http://i1143.photobucket.com/albums/...k/SUNP0264.jpg

[bytown]

Need better pictures to make any judgement.

Do a search of this site for UK Militaria and you'll find that they are not necessarily a good place to buy.

If you have purchased other items from them it would be best to post them on the forum and see if they are good or bad.

Wayne

[bytown]

I had another look at his site.

Lots of crap there.

195 Pounds for a 4yr Heer service medal.

They go for like 60 Euros on any other site.

Wayne

[kaiiser.kiing]

I didn't get it for the medal. I would have paid more than that for the certificates alone.

I prefer stuff like that. There's thousands of these medals, fake or not. But there will only ever be one Ludwig Faust of the Grossdeutschland Panzer-Grenadier Division.

I agree it's not the best site. But it's hard to trust paying someone hundreds, if not thousands of pounds over the internet. So i prefer to keep a few trusted sellers. And as well as being a bit dear on some items, things like the Heer and SS helmet are incredibly cheap for their condition. And if you're sure of their authenticity, you have a good deal.
He also owns another site, ukmsales.com, which is about the same price, and sells mainly deactivated weapons of all kinds.


Anyway, from what i've said, would you be able to even give a guess at whether it's real? I would like to have at least a rough idea. I'll take it to the auctioneers soon and see about it, but my local one isn't very good.
I bought a 1916 Iron Cross from this same site about a year ago and the auctioneer hadn't a clue.

THANKS

[kaiiser.kiing]

I'll try my other camera for quality, but i think my pictures are about as good as i'm going to get.
Sorry.

[bytown]

If the medals you bought turn out to be copies.

Odds are that the certificates are probably bad too.

You would have to have someone look at them that knows.

Wayne

[Valter Gorenc]

I prefer stuff like that. There's thousands of these medals, fake or not. But there will only ever be one Ludwig Faust of the Grossdeutschland Panzer-Grenadier Division.

THANKS

I'am afraid there is no proof that the very medal you bought was really awarded to Ludwig Faust from GD. Even if both the medal and documents are good, what confirms that they belong together? Many dealers make "sets" of documents and medals and just put any medal of certain type to the document, to enhance the value of the set and easier sell the medal that might stay in their shop for a while. The same goes with cases and packets. You can be certain ONLY with numbered awards, and this medal isn't one of them.

[kaiiser.kiing]

It's okay. I know noe - it's fake. All of it.
Maybe not the clasp, it looks okay.

The certificates are completely fake.
Really well done, but there are a few stupid give-aways.

Both certificates are stained with something. One looks naturally stained, but the other one is awfu. If you look at the back there is something about it... i don't know what... it doesn't look right. There are levels of stainage, and the unstained paper is too clean. - No creases or anything, just white smooth paper. And i mentioned before that they have fingerprints - that was obviously done by the stainer. Probably by accident.
Oh, and it smells strongly of something. Similar to coffee.
At first i didn't think to smell the paper because i didn't think a fake would be that carelessly done.

But here is the main giveaway. (also the bit that might make me look like a fool if i'm wrong) -- There is a spelling mistake. Two in the same word.
The Service Medal certificate says "Im Name des Führers und Reicgstanzlers"
'Reicgstanzlers' is not a word in any language, let alone German. However if you change a couple of letters it says "Reich Chancellor" - which makes complete sense.

Everthing other than this is okay. It is overall a very good fake.

[kaiiser.kiing]

I just need to know as quick as possible: Was Hitler the Commander of the Armed Forces?