HJ Leaders Buckle

[RobertE]

I know these buckles are heavily reproduced. Does anyone know whether this is an original, or a copy? I'd really appreciate the help.

Regards, Robert

[RobertE]

Front detail -

[RobertE]

...and reverse

[John T]

Robert...an infamous European faker was selling these at the SOS for I think 30 or 50 dollars a piece and he had a lot....dealers were sitting behind his table and buying up fakes of items. I held one in hand, and there were quite a few fakes at the show and from what I recall they all had a matte silver look and the edges of the buckle itself were fairly thin, almost so that you could cut your finger...I should have asked to buy one of the fakes for reference purposes...I can not say for sure if your example is fake and I would like to hear what others have to say. I personally like these in zinc or cupal construction, not just solid white metal....also I like to see the keeper in cupal.....

Cheers,

John

[Ric Ferrari]

I know these buckles are heavily reproduced. Does anyone know whether this is an original, or a copy? I'd really appreciate the help.

Regards, Robert

Hello Robert,

you are right and by the pics I would say yours belongs to the "family".
I recently purchased one (sold as copy) by a well known US Auction House to study it in depth, unfortunately it's not in my hands yet.

In the meanwhile here are the pics.

Best

Ric

[Ric Ferrari]

Hello Robert,

you are right and by the pics I would say yours belongs to the "family".
I recently purchased one (sold as copy) by a well known US Auction House to study it in depth, unfortunately it's not in my hands yet.

In the meanwhile here are the pics.

Best

Ric

Front

[Ric Ferrari]

Hello Robert,

you are right and by the pics I would say yours belongs to the "family".
I recently purchased one (sold as copy) by a well known US Auction House to study it in depth, unfortunately it's not in my hands yet.

In the meanwhile here are the pics.

Best

Ric

Marking

[Ric Ferrari]

Hello Robert,

you are right and by the pics I would say yours belongs to the "family".
I recently purchased one (sold as copy) by a well known US Auction House to study it in depth, unfortunately it's not in my hands yet.

In the meanwhile here are the pics.

Best

Ric

Hello,

I finally got the above mentioned buckle and here's the result of my in hand inspection :

The buckle is made of non magnetic metal, may be some sort of brass, keep in mind the same repro do exist in silver version (see pics #1-2-3)

The details are superbly reproduced and in my opinion obtained by a die struck manufacture : roundel is slightly larger than an original one by M4/22.

This fake is reproducing an M4/22 design and is almost perfect in any detail : fortunately the perfect repro remains an utopia so few differences are still evident but hard to detect by pics : I'll keep silence on those for obvious reasons.

Post prongs assembly is the main give away sign (marking apart) and allowed me to reveal another high quality repro : Bahnschutz officer by alu Assmann 43 marked (see next thread).

To end : be warning !

Best

Ric