I agree with Wim and Tom, Winterhilfswerk, Feldpost 58, Valhallamilitaria, TPK and all the rest: it is a sad state of affairs when we have to scrutinize Tinnies for fakery !
A few years ago, rather than buy $250 worth of medals from a vet, I bought his framed collection of some 20 odd tinnies for $200, knowing the relative value of each would be around 30 bucks, vs. his offering me an EKII and a 12 year Werhmacht service medal, plus a WestWall medal and something else for 250. (I actually went back and bought the other medals later, seeing that they were original Vet material, and in some really nice condish.
In other words - I knew I was getting the real deal on the Tinnies, and I got some I had never seen before, and duplicates of others. A great deal. And I LOVE Tinnies - I absolutely love them. I have some actual rare medals that not everyone owns - and Tinnies may not be as 'glamorous' as some of those medals, but Tinnies come in such a variety, and they have so many different, beautiful forms, that I can't help but be fascinated by them!!
I still have every Tinnie I bought from that Vet, as well as the other awards from him. They are a permanent part of my collection, and I'm proud of them. Not to mention the other wonderful Tinnies I've been fortunate enough to collect over the years. So, IMO, Tinnies really Kick A!!! For the price, for the originality, for the beautiful designs, you can never go wrong with them - because for the price, they can give you a very wide window into a certain period of time that having only the rarest of items just can't give you.
But viewing these pictures, and seeing that they are faking even Tinnies!!! wtf???
One way we can view it, Gentleman - TRYING to put it in a positive light - is that even our Tinnies are now valuable and desirable enough to be faked. Let's hang on to them, study them, and treasure them like our more pricey items - because as more people come into the collecting field, there is less real material to satisfy the demand, and more fakers out there trying to fill that demand. SO - I guess we do what we've done with the more desireable medals - form groups of experts who KNOW the real from the bad. That's the need now in Tinnies - we have to spot the BS from the real. And if in doubt, submit your item to the Forum for some judgment from experts, who have been dealing with this stuff for a long, long time, and can be considered reliable experts.
THANKS TO ALL, for all the posts, especially the pictures, I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen pictures here. A mind-blowing experience to see what's going on in the collecting world at the moment! When Tinnies are faked, the whole collecting world had better double down on getting everything right.
Just IMO.
R
A few years ago, rather than buy $250 worth of medals from a vet, I bought his framed collection of some 20 odd tinnies for $200, knowing the relative value of each would be around 30 bucks, vs. his offering me an EKII and a 12 year Werhmacht service medal, plus a WestWall medal and something else for 250. (I actually went back and bought the other medals later, seeing that they were original Vet material, and in some really nice condish.
In other words - I knew I was getting the real deal on the Tinnies, and I got some I had never seen before, and duplicates of others. A great deal. And I LOVE Tinnies - I absolutely love them. I have some actual rare medals that not everyone owns - and Tinnies may not be as 'glamorous' as some of those medals, but Tinnies come in such a variety, and they have so many different, beautiful forms, that I can't help but be fascinated by them!!
I still have every Tinnie I bought from that Vet, as well as the other awards from him. They are a permanent part of my collection, and I'm proud of them. Not to mention the other wonderful Tinnies I've been fortunate enough to collect over the years. So, IMO, Tinnies really Kick A!!! For the price, for the originality, for the beautiful designs, you can never go wrong with them - because for the price, they can give you a very wide window into a certain period of time that having only the rarest of items just can't give you.
But viewing these pictures, and seeing that they are faking even Tinnies!!! wtf???
One way we can view it, Gentleman - TRYING to put it in a positive light - is that even our Tinnies are now valuable and desirable enough to be faked. Let's hang on to them, study them, and treasure them like our more pricey items - because as more people come into the collecting field, there is less real material to satisfy the demand, and more fakers out there trying to fill that demand. SO - I guess we do what we've done with the more desireable medals - form groups of experts who KNOW the real from the bad. That's the need now in Tinnies - we have to spot the BS from the real. And if in doubt, submit your item to the Forum for some judgment from experts, who have been dealing with this stuff for a long, long time, and can be considered reliable experts.
THANKS TO ALL, for all the posts, especially the pictures, I would not have believed it if I hadn't seen pictures here. A mind-blowing experience to see what's going on in the collecting world at the moment! When Tinnies are faked, the whole collecting world had better double down on getting everything right.
Just IMO.
R
Yes! It appears that tinnie collecting is no longer the safe haven of Third Reich collectibles. Nowadays even the most common of items are being faked. And even though these are pretty obvious fakes to the experienced collector, they are bound to fool some of the young and novice collectors. And I'm sure that the fakes being made will get better and better over time. Then we will all have to be extremely careful.
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