Post your Fake Death Card

[Revellations]

Please post more fake Death Card examples.

Over the years a number of posts have been made where they have asked to post your favorite death card/notice. Well I would like to put a little spin on it and ask you to post your favourite FAKE death card. With that though, I would like your opinion on why you believe it is fake. Here is an example of what I am looking for:



Reason why it is fake - Poor printing quality by a dot matrix printer. You can see on the Memorial border on the front of the card the 'stepped' effect on both sides.

Remember everyone is entitled to their opinions to why they believe (or don't believe) their death card is a fake. I would like this topic to be very active and encourage as many people as possible to post their fake death cards with the corresponsding reason why. I look forward to the next post....

Cheers

Scott

[monty]

Fake Bismarck Card

Here are 4 photos of a reproduced Bismarck card. The text is block lettered; the photo appears to be a laser copy - it is not of the same pattern series of dots original photos are composed of; and the paper glows badly. A German seller had a pile of these some time back.

[monty]

Bismarck Card

Photo 2

[monty]

Bismarck Card

Photo 3

[monty]

Bismarck Card

Photo 4

[monty]

DK in Gold Death Card

I think the glow says it all in this one.

[monty]

DK in Gold Card

Photo 2

[Guenter Braun]

Glowing paper is no indicator

Hi!

It was not unusual that relatives bear the remembrance to the deceased by reprinting the death cards after 10 or 20 years. Glowing paper was already available in this age.

This was a quite common practice especially in catholic districts together with a requiem. The reprinted death cards have been distributed to all churchgoer.

Today, 60 years after the end of WW2, this old rite is less know and very unusual.

But laser or ink-jet prints are a reliable indication for a fake, because both were not in use in that years.


Guenter

[monty]

re Death Cards

Very stange though the only death cards I have ever found that have glowed have been those that are very desirable - to desirable units or with higher medal awards. These 2 above by the way did not just glow! - they fluoresced like beacons!

[M. Lupus]

If someone is interested in the "Adam Kraus" death card. It's still available at eBay, see http://cgi.ebay.de/Raritaet-Sterbebi...QQcmdZViewItem

the seller r-n-g sells these fake cards.

And indeed, Guenter is right. Many cards were made afther the war ended or were reprinted. At the end of the war paper was in short supply, kids at school even had to use old newspapers to make there homework/lessons!
Some cards are still made these days, but indeed these cards are not very often encountered by collectors.

How to see if a card is original: When a death card was produced the characters are printed through in the paper. This trick only works with thin paper.

Lupus

[Guenter Braun]

Hi monty,


I'm not a collector of death cards. I've some in my collection because they are related to history of an airfield: common soldiers only.

But I'm observing the marked for a friend who has no access to the internet. He is not collection death cards, but researching losses of aircrafts during WW2 and death cards are a good indication for further locals researches.

Bismark, Tripitz, fighter pilots, high ranks and many awards are good for generating money. Therefore I suppose more than 90% of such offers are fakes. In some cases a I belive the mentioned KIA was awarded resp. promoted posthumously only for making a fake death card.

The plainest way to determine if fake or genuine is to explore the lettering of the personal dates, dedication and the frame with a lens.

The religious pictures on the rear side are less suitables, because preprinted forms were/are used in many cases by the printer.

Usually 50 to 100 death cards are / were printed and forwarded to attenders at church and relatives only. How many of them would survive 60+ years later?


Best Regards
Guenter

[Revellations]

Some interesting posts so far.

Lupus,

Interesting to see the fake Bismarck Card being sold by r-n-g on ebay. The fake card that I posted at the top of this topic was intentionally purchsed from him as a fake even though he denied it when asked. I left positive feedback for him anyway as I didn't want him to tarnish my good history on ebay with him leaving negative feedback for me. Regardless though, he does sell a lot of fakes.

Guenter,

In some cases a I belive the mentioned KIA was awarded resp. promoted posthumously only for making a fake death card.

What do you mean by this comment. I am interested in what this means as I may have misunderstood you due to language translation.

Monty,

Love the Photos and it is exactly what I am looking for. I would still love to see some more examples.


I totally agree with the comments that it is generally the more desirable cards that attract the fakes - Waffen-SS, Fallschirmjäger, 'Big ships', U-Boats and Highly decorated soldiers (Knights Cross, DKiG, etc). This is where the money is when these cards are in their original format.

It was not unusual that relatives bear the remembrance to the deceased by reprinting the death cards after 10 or 20 years. Glowing paper was already available in this age. This was a quite common practice especially in catholic districts together with a requiem. The reprinted death cards have been distributed to all churchgoer.

This is also very interesting. So death cards originally made during WWII could be reprinted 20 yrs later on different paper but exactly the same layout as the previous one? This would make sense if a Requiem was being held.


Love the posts so far, Please keep them coming.......

[monty]

re fake cards

"r-n-g" also had fake FJ cards about the same time. This seller has used at least one other user name on Ebay and has a user name on MilitariaWeb as well. I have seen the Kraus cards advertised under all 3 names. I got my money back but it took some doing!

[Revellations]

Any more examples from other forum members..........

[Tim DC]

Here is the only one I've had; the well known fake Totenkopf death card of Franz Seibold. The printing is bad, it looks like new and it glows terribly under the blacklight.