Mechlinburg buckles

[buckle1]

After seeing the note from Tom Reid that JP posted I thought I would show a couple of my Imperial Mecklinburg-Strelitz buckles. The first is a Tombac 45 mm buckle Tom the Tom referred to. This is the first and only one of these I have heard of. The same goes for the 2nd photo of a two-piece brass M-S buckle. Please note the design of the face-plate w/the wide smooth outer edge and the inner small rope as well as the oval(as opposed to round) center design. Patzwall shows a 50mm buckle w/the same oval design but with the standard heavy rope edge. Has anyone seen ether of these buckles before? Any info would be appreciated.

Bill

[Jean Pierre Redeuilh]

Here is Tom Reid message Bill was talking about:

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This is in response to Bill's note about the DRK (Red Cross) buckles.
Since writing my book, I have had a number of opportunities to talk with
workers in Luedenscheid and Altena (an even smaller town) about "late war"
items. At this time I would back off on dating anything as "late" because it
is made of "pot metal". The real term for this cheap, heavy metal alloy is
"Weissmetall" and it is an alloy of lead, tin, and copper. This began to be
used about 1941, not 1943. Several firms in Luedenscheid began getting
contracts for high quality aluminum rocket parts about that time, and buckle
materials went down quickly in quality. I would also suggest that the DRK
buckle I earlier described as a "prototype" was probably a limited production
item by a single company. Still very scarce, but probably not much later in
production than the "standard" or commoner version. Both have the smooth
back side typical of injection moulding.
Tombac Mecklenburg-Strelitz? That would have to be private purchase,
since that state had no Garde battalions or regiments. Very rare I'd say.

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[Jean Pierre Redeuilh]

For Bill 1

[Jean Pierre Redeuilh]

For Bill 2

[Jean Pierre Redeuilh]

For Bill 3

[Jean Pierre Redeuilh]

For Bill last

[Marc verstraete]

View of different Mecklenburg buckles

[Marc verstraete]

Note the square crest insted of round on this one!!