Spanish Blue Division medal

[Angel Farré]

I start this as request made from the e-stand where I give advise of the copies made in Spain as replacement to veterans and that are sold in the open market. Find here three examples, anverse and reverse, the left one is the original made during the war and till early in the 50s, the center one was a second batch ordered in the 60-70s and the right one is a copy made now by microfusion. You can see the diference in the three cases. Also exists another model sometimes refered as officers version or german made, both names are incorrect, is a jeweller copy made in Madrid for private purchase by the known jeweller Rokiski and was made in three pieces and from real silver. If anyone want more info put a reply here and I try to help you in knowing more about this medal.

Angel

[Richard]

Mine looks a little more like Ben's but is still somewhat different than all the rest.





Richard V

[Mark S.]

Great information Angel. I have wondered how to tell them apart. I would love to hear any more information you have.

Can you post a picture of the jeweler made one?

[Sebastian Bianchi]

Mine is a little different than those 3 as well, no cutouts, yet the bottom doesn't exactly match the middle one.

[Sebastian Bianchi]

front close up

[Richard]

One of our medal's must have the ribbon on backwards. I've noticed that mine has the red and yellow stripes on the left while Seba's has them on the right. Which way is correct?
Richard V

[Angel Farré]

Sorry for my dely, but my PC deceided to take holidays without notice. I try to put here a photo from the jeweller copy. Spanish flag must be in the left side from your view point, as in the one shown by Richard. I updated this thread alongside the weekend.

Angel

[Angel Farré]

Find here photos from an "officers" version, it's only a private purchase made in three pieces and in real silver by the Jeweller Rokiski, a polish living in Madrid. Also you could see some of the used ones with red crosses in its ribbon, each cross marks a wound sustained during this campaign, this is also true to other campaign medals awarded by the Spanish. Unafortunately in the original the colours of the stripes appears blue, but the ribbon is the same as in the normal version.

Angel

[Rick Research]

Good topic Angel! I see these every so often, but never enough to remember the difference between one and another several shows (or years!) apart. In the first scans, the left and right ones look almost identical to me (the new copy on the back of the crown almost looks like little swastikas instead of fleur de lys)-- is there any way to tell by the type of metal, or weight (in the hand, I don't travel with all that micro-gram weighing gear, an old one from a new one? Rick

[James Clark]

Mine is all off-centre - a known fake or a shoddy original?

[James Clark]

More obvious from the reverse....

[Angel Farré]

The current made pieces are done by microfusion and with a power lens you can see the small bubbles and is made from two parts and in the reverse you can see easy the union lines. James look at the details in the reverse, current copy are less defined than originals and look at the way of construction, the model in the center is easy spot by its suspension system.

Angel

[Sebastian Bianchi]

Going by your last description, mine is not the fake described, but neither is it the other two. It looks closer to the second one (without the space between the legs) but without the long suspension system.

Seba