Luftschutz 1 class

[Ian Hulley]

This is the ribbon that had been on the WH 4 medal ..



As I said you had to see where it came from ... the guy wasn't pulling my plonker either, we'd been chatting for about 10 minutes, generally bemoaning the lack of interesting medals and laughing about the 70-odd year old guy dressed as a LW ace when he opened the screwed up bag and said I might be interested in the Fire Cross ....

Ian

[Patrick W]

Hi Ian

I'm sure the guy you bought it from got it just as he said but the Luft schutz could have been added to other medals in the 50's or 60's quite easily. All I can do is compare to known or accepted originals that I and others have had and if I had to use just the construction as an indicator I would have to say that I have never seen any genuine 3rd reich medal in zinc that is sandwiched together from 2 halves as this cross is. Some zinc war badges have cracks in the sides in the zinc but none have this regular form like on your medal and it's twins that I have hand examined.

it could be very late war original- personally I think not. I would be very interested in the results of acetone on the remaining finish, as the ones I looked at certainly had an extremely old painted or spray painted finish.

Sorry I couldn't be more positive on it Ian, i'm not trying to be difficult and am always trying to learn also- there is much to learn on these medals and every example is a useful tool.

ps. the ribbon is good for sure but there is another old copy version that I have seen a number of that again look good on first sight but on the closup are cast with a very old finish. they have original ribbons pushed throuth the flat suspender and are missing the main ribbon loop- try doing this yourself and you will find this is really hard! I have seen 5 or 6 exactly like this in recent years but I would suggest they date to the 60's or earlier.

[byterock]

Ok, so I know the form and source of mine and therefore KNOW it is 100% original ...





A clear seam/join.

These are incredibly rare ... allegedly around 150 awarded so what, maybe a couple of thousand manufactured ? ... and to find anyone who's studied more than one or two must be VERY difficult.

Here's the ribbon ring and jump ring ..




I have clear 'texture' shots of each arm if you want them to compare Antonio ?

Cheers, Ian.

Actually Ian I wanted a look at the side of the first one not yours. Anyway I like the look you yours and has the same properties I have seen in other originals. Thanks can never have too many ref pics of this one

[all1knew]

Here's another I will post for reference. In my opinion, with very odd finish. Don't know if authentic for sure.

William Kramer

[all1knew]

details showing the finish

[RKC]

William:

There's nothing wrong with your Luftschutz Cross!

These were around back in the mid-seventies in our area in Ontario - Toronto....Burlington....Hamilton shows. They were easy to detect back then because the odd time we would come across a "dud" offered from our notorious "F.G." character & whenever he had one for sale all you had to do was look for the "Mold Seam" that was easily detected on the inner parts of the award.

Look inside in the [PIE CUT] areas....you will see a "seam" that is 'dead-center' all the way around on the reproductions....These were "molded" using a 2-piece rubber mold. The guys who were pushing these things out spent little time on 'spiffing' them up to make it hard for us to not detect them. They filed/sanded the outer edges on these but always missed smoothing down the 'pie cut' areas.

Ron.