The Coburg Badge

[Richard]

Is the badge known to be genuine silver though it is not marked as such? I find it hard to believe a one off, original "upgrade" to such a prestigious award would not be made of silver. Would it be possible (just sayin') that someone went against all convention, was so proud of his award, that he commissioned a jeweler to make him a "special" copy which he never wore but kept to himself? Like others have mentioned, it would be unusual for a faker to make just one badge unless it was an experiment and he didn't like how it turned out or figured he'd never be able to sell enough with a story behind it, to turn a decent profit. Of course I've seen fakes of tinnies of which you can buy an original for less than $5, so what kind of profit possibility is there in that either?
Richard V

[Gary B]

Any opinions on the stickpin?

Gary B

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

Silver Party Badge, BO prototype, "red" Coburg Badge...

C'mon guys...

There is NO proof that only 1 or 2 were made... How many more can be sleeping in collection.
And if it is said to be "unique", why would you do more of them ?
If you can find an idiot really to buy it for a ridiculous amount of money, why the hell will you blow up the whole swindle ?

Are you just legitimizing the "red" Coburg Badge because there is "only" one copy ? This is silly, if not totally illogical !
In the same way, you are legitimizing all the single homemade fake cuff titles, insignia, tinnies, badges and awards... "But there is only one model like that, it should be real !".

The Silver Party Badge is having a similar story as the "red" Coburg Badge, involving Littlejohn... Well well...

Belief : confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof.

See You

Vince

PS : more about the Silver Party Badge here :
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=934091

[Gary B]

Any opinions on the stickpin?

Gary B

[Stan]

Vince,

The Silver GPB did not belong to David Littlejohn, it belonged to his co-author and friend Col. C M Dodkins

Stan

[Stan]

The controversy over this Silver/Red Coburg badge reminds me of a story I read in the newspaper last week.

A wealthy English lord decided to sell a collection of paintings which had hung in his family home/castle for centuries. This was no ordinary sale and the amount raised was £32m.

Amongst the Old Masters was a painting which was said by some experts to be a copy and by other experts to be a fine original. Because of the controversy the owner accepted that the painting might not be worth very much and gave it a low limit.

What happened? Well the painting was sold for a world-record price and the experts are still arguing.


Stan

[Br. James]

Thanks, Stan. Ours is not the only hobby that has a long history of questionable "artifacts" in it! So it has obviously been. There are certain similarities between the English lord in your story, who apparently inherited a collection of "heirloom" paintings acquired by his family long ago, and those among us who inherit TR collections accumulated by a family member over the last seven decades. Today we sadly find that at least some of our inherited artifacts are actually fakes that our relative innocently purchased long ago. And like the English lord, who didn't lay out his own funds to buy those fake paintings, whatever he gets for them at auction is, in some ways, "found money," since it didn't come out of his own pocket. But the difference today is that many of us who have accumulated these TR artifacts during our collecting lifetime will one day want to sell them, and that is when "the rubber meets the road," so to speak -- that is when we ourselves will see whether our hobby regards our investments in a positive or a negative way.

Cheers,

Br. James

[jimmy72]

There are solid body tinnies , made from silver that sport proof markings and maker marks , sometimes both ! Nobody wanted to put their company name to this prestigious award or mark it silver ? Keeping the dream alive with an anecdote doesn’t move us any closer to the truth . First documented in 68’ .. 25 years after it would have been awarded .. zero period documentation .. zero photo evidence ( which granted would be tough to distinguish) .. base design but with multiple variances from original... personally awarded by AH but to whom ? Dunno !

[M. Zimmer]

Voraus zur Unzeit

Does anybody know this Book?

[JoeW]

Does anybody know this Book?

No I do not Herr Zimmer. Does it contain new information on the Nazi action in Coburg?

Moderator. May I suggest that you start a new thread on the silver Coburg Badge debate and move all relevant posts to that topic. It involved a lot of work, but the debate does not belong in this thread.

[Br. James]

No, I've never heard of this title either.

Br. James

[FrenchVolunteer]

Hi,

The controversy over this Silver/Red Coburg badge reminds me of a story I read in the newspaper last week.

How many good story for 10, 100 or 1000 that ended very bad ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudy_Kurniawan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfgang_Beltracchi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oded_Golan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Myatt

Dozen of millions of dollars of fakes...

Oh, and it seemed that everyone forgot our mastermind... Herr Kujau !

Finally, what is killing people/collectors is that they HOPE and BELIEVE that they have the real deal, and not a fake. To believer is the worst irrational enemy in collecting.
No one will help you if you have a fake...

Belief : an acceptance that something exists or is true, especially one without proof.

See You

Vince

[JoeW]

Jimmy, although I have used the Littlejohn/Dodkins book as a benchmark in the discussion of the silver badge, I don't think you can diss appearance in that book because it was 25 years after the fact. Were there any earlier attempts at complete references on German badges of the Third Reich? It is hard to pass judgement on their work as one must put it into perspective of that time of collecting. For some collectors, appearing in a "reference" work 50 years old has some relevance, even if that time was twenty something years after the fact.

[JoeW]

No, I've never heard of this title either.

Br. James

A quick check shows it was a catalog of the 2004 exhibition on the Coburg March prepared by the Coburg City Archive and Museum.

[Br. James]

My out-of-print bookseller tells me that there is a copy available @ $26.51; the listing is:

via
booklooker
Germany ISBN 3980800636
Publisher: Initiative Stadtmuseum Coburg
Taschenbuch. Neuware.

I don't think I'll add this title to my library! Cheers,

Br. James