Okay Guys, here we go with the launch of our new updated 2018 opinion poll on the French-made Kriegsmarine war badges.
If you're semi-retired, on holiday, laid up with a broken leg, etc. please take the time to review the previous 22-page discussion thread and poll that covered a 14 year period since 2004:
"Bacqueville" Kriegsmarine Badges are...
...and then cast your vote here in the new poll to see where the forum community currently stands on the issue.
To review, in their favour:
1) multiple anecdotes of U.S. veteran bring-backs like this one.
2) current collector anecdotes both in U.S. and France going back to at least the 1970s.
3) elaborate production methods with unique labour-intensive designs for almost the full range of KM badges, complete with unique patterned cartons and packing paper.
4) oft-repeated (and published) accompanying anecdote of a Paris Navy Headquarters with a large stash at the end of the war which was gradually raided over the years and finally making it into the collector market circa 1970.
Arguments against:
1) no firm provenance (anecdotal only)
2) the "Paris Navy Headquarters" story links up to the late antiquarian dealer René Johnson who is himself implicated in some other large-scale scams
3) micro-imagery unequivocally showing that they are cast production (not in itself a deal-breaker since casting was also done in wartime), yet with some features that appear to try to mimic a die-struck look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAEKgiud9Y4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC5Uq6RuE9c
4) the fact that the main pin is also of cast production
5) the inexplicable appearance of a Deumer U-Boat planchet with typical "French-made" hardware and packaging
6) the 1942 published explicit announcement from the Präsidialkanzlei forbidding the distribution of German military awards in occupied and friendly foreign countries.
7) Despite being relatively common, never appear in German vet groupings nor in any period photographs in wear (while other more rare awards do).
If we're fortunate, more forensic analysis may be forthcoming, but for now a new poll should better reflect an informed collecting community.
Best regards,
---Norm
If you're semi-retired, on holiday, laid up with a broken leg, etc. please take the time to review the previous 22-page discussion thread and poll that covered a 14 year period since 2004:
"Bacqueville" Kriegsmarine Badges are...
...and then cast your vote here in the new poll to see where the forum community currently stands on the issue.
To review, in their favour:
1) multiple anecdotes of U.S. veteran bring-backs like this one.
2) current collector anecdotes both in U.S. and France going back to at least the 1970s.
3) elaborate production methods with unique labour-intensive designs for almost the full range of KM badges, complete with unique patterned cartons and packing paper.
4) oft-repeated (and published) accompanying anecdote of a Paris Navy Headquarters with a large stash at the end of the war which was gradually raided over the years and finally making it into the collector market circa 1970.
Arguments against:
1) no firm provenance (anecdotal only)
2) the "Paris Navy Headquarters" story links up to the late antiquarian dealer René Johnson who is himself implicated in some other large-scale scams
3) micro-imagery unequivocally showing that they are cast production (not in itself a deal-breaker since casting was also done in wartime), yet with some features that appear to try to mimic a die-struck look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAEKgiud9Y4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC5Uq6RuE9c
4) the fact that the main pin is also of cast production
5) the inexplicable appearance of a Deumer U-Boat planchet with typical "French-made" hardware and packaging
6) the 1942 published explicit announcement from the Präsidialkanzlei forbidding the distribution of German military awards in occupied and friendly foreign countries.
7) Despite being relatively common, never appear in German vet groupings nor in any period photographs in wear (while other more rare awards do).
If we're fortunate, more forensic analysis may be forthcoming, but for now a new poll should better reflect an informed collecting community.
Best regards,
---Norm
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