Memel medal ¿ original?

[Gardereiter]

Thank you to Antonio and Tom for answering my question about this medal.

I personally think that the term "Fake B-Memel" should be abandoned because it was produced using a pre-1945 stamping-die. If anything, it should be termed a "Postwar B-Memel".

Of course the medal Tom posted above is indeed a screaming die-cast fake of the B-Memel, as Antonio pointed out. This thing is a "real" fake.

The big question now is: exactly how was it established, that the B-Memel was manufactured postwar? Was it simply because they did not have "Traces Of Use" (Gebrauchspuren) or "Wartime Traces" as Antonio pointed out earlier? Was it because the production records of S&L reflected a postwar edition of these medals?

Soldiers did not always update their medal bars. The medals that did not get mounted on the medal bars stayed in the envelopes with the ribbons, in most cases. These unmounted medals remained in pristine condition.

I have the complete estate grouping of a General that I purchased from his granddaughter where his Ostmedaille, KVK2, Sudetenland, and Anschluss never got mounted on his medal bar. They were found carefully stored away among his estate items and they are in mint, unused condition.








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[Antonio Scapini]

Post-war or fake for most collectors is the same, because the only real originals are pre may 1945, the rest is not wartime, so not original.

This medal was not made in the same way of the wartime medals, they used something different, maybe they sold the die to another company after the war (common practice), or they changed the production... Who knows?

Anyway this medal is not wartime, and it will be considered "fake" or "post-war".

If you think it is wartime you have to find some real unquestionable proofs.

There's a chapter about this medal in the Memel book, I suggest you to read it.