Berlin Hoard Skulls - What is the Deal Here?

[Dmv]

Jos.

The two large skulls there are not from the Berlin hoard.

There are differences on the reverse.

Ok, so now whe have Berlin hoard skulls vs. Sandman repro skulls which are trying to be Berlin hoarders (the ones Jos posted).

Robin or anybody; what is the difference between them to tell them appart?!
2 comparison photo's next to eachother would be nice.

p.s. Still wanting to see the newspaper article!

[Johnny R]

The skull that Naxos posted look like they are on RH period boards for KR 5? if that is the case and he knows where those came from those can be crossed off. That picture is from Kassel?

The newspaper article is mentioned around post 28 of the link I put up earlier, it says that there was an image of the skull hoard shown in the ground with construction workers. I will ask some dealer friends in Europe if they have it or remember the year, maybe it can be found on line somehow.

[Johnny R]

Johnny R
nothing personal mate,,but authoring books does not directly correlate
to knowledge on the subject,,,,some of the biggest crooks in the hobby have authored refrence books,,,,

Yes, I fully agree but there are also people who write from passion for the hobby and are trying to help share knowledge etc. I would not say that Robin is on equal footing with some of the professional criminals that used fame and publications as a vehicle to obtain collectibles basically by acting like unethical selfish children.

Writing a book is a fantastic amount of work without multiple writers etc. and should be respected if it was not done for bad intentions, even writing a decent chapter 40-50 pages with illustrations can take a year. If you sell less than 5000 copies you generally do not make any money and with the internet now the publishing industry is wounded as well.

[Sergeant 08]

I’m a little bit late in this discussion. But here are some thoughts and facts about the theme.

The “Berlin hoard” skulls appeared 4 or 5 years ago. I think, I bought my first skull in 2005.

When I had the first skulls in my hands, I was impressed by the quality of these skulls. I had no doubt about the originality.

In the last years appeared a lot of those skulls. We all know the quantities….hundreds, thousands of skulls….who knows?

In think the story was, that some construction workers found the skulls near Berlin. Another part of the story was a newspaper article. Btw, I have never seen that article! Must a newspaper article be an evidence? I think no. If you go to a local newspaper and tell an interesting story (true or not true) there, I think they would be happy to publish such a story in a “little” local newspaper.

We know two different skull variants. I remember both variants, which I bought in 2005, had prongs with cuts. Later came only the bigger skull variant with cuts on the prongs. If you buy the smaller skull variant (classic jawless skull), it has in the most cases no prongs with cuts today.

During the years appeared a lot of such skulls, which sometimes looked different in the kind of aging. The materials looked always very comparable.

Are there really differences between the skulls which we call skulls from the “Sandkastenmann” and the "Berlin skulls"? I’m not sure. I can not see big differences.

[Sergeant 08]

Period photos showed us, that similar skulls were on caps of SS and Wehrmacht.

[Sergeant 08]

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[Sergeant 08]

Has anybody seen other similar skulls?

Yes! I have one (zinc skull) which is nearly identical to the so called “Berlin skulls”. This skull has no relation to the “Berlin hoard”, the design is identical, but it has different prongs on the back.

[Sergeant 08]

Up today I have the skulls in my collection, because there is not really an final answer.

[Johnny R]

Thanks for posting, I thought you would shed light on this, It would be "neat" to see the photo of the skulls in the ground. I doubt we would be able to see details but at least it would confirm the hoard and give us a location to try and guess at least why they were buried where they were.

[Niblet]

Thanks for posting, I thought you would shed light on this, It would be "neat" to see the photo of the skulls in the ground. I doubt we would be able to see details but at least it would confirm the hoard and give us a location to try and guess at least why they were buried where they were.

Thats why the sandman has them in a box of sand and dirt,,,to help you visualize how they appeared!

Johhny,,thanks for the info about authoring and publishing,,,as I was unaware
of these facts,,and yes your statement about unethical selfish children is spot on! I know who you mean!

[naxos]

The skull that Naxos posted look like they are on RH period boards for KR 5? if that is the case and he knows where those came from those can be crossed off. ....

Johnny, the scull came with Reichswehr KR5 Feldwebel strap and collar tabs. Now, even though I believe the items have been together for a long time - I have no prove of continuance of evidence.



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[Johnny R]

Thats why the sandman has them in a box of sand and dirt,,,to help you visualize how they appeared!

Johhny,,thanks for the info about authoring and publishing,,,as I was unaware
of these facts,,and yes your statement about unethical selfish children is spot on! I know who you mean!

Yes indeed sadly no shortage of childish and/or bad behavior in the collecting arena. There are some real class acts as we have seen recently with authors and others.

[Johnny R]

Johnny, the scull came with Reichswehr KR5 Feldwebel strap and collar tabs. Now, even though I believe the items have been together for a long time - I have no prove of continuance of evidence.



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Those are beautiful boards, the giant Krause RW book has some nice images in it of wear of the hat devices.

[Brad Posey]

ok....a last attempt here at this subject to try and bring it back around to my original questions.

The "Sandkastenmann" is the guy that has the newspaper article. I first saw him and the skulls along with a ton of other things at the Ciney show 4 or 5 years ago with this article. It was a small article with a photo of an old building and a photo of some "stuff" that looked like it was in a wall or something, but hard to see what it was – as I recall.

Since then I have seen him, this article and his boxes of rocks, dirt and the pieces that were found in the “hoard”.

This guy says this was all found in the old building in Berlin.

So, my opinion is that the “Sandkastenmann” is the Berlin Hoard…..or anther way to look at it is the Berlin Hoard is the “Sandkastenmann”.

That is only my opinion because I too see very little difference in these skulls.

I only wanted to ask the question here because it seems like there is not a real opinion on what the “Sandbox Man” is selling. He IS the Berlin Hoard in my opinion.

And what about all of the other stuff he had/still has? Hollow silver wound badges, cap eagles…all sorts.

I think Sergeant 08 is adding a lot to this mystery. Thanks…..

There must be a bunch of people that know of this guy. Of course there are shady middlemen that may want to blow of the “Sandbox Man” as the “fake Berlin Hoard” if his stuff is actually fake because they have been buying these skulls for 10 Euro and selling them to others for ??

Mr Sandbox says his stuff was found in Berlin…..The other “Berlin Hoard” stuff I see here looks exactly like what he is selling. There must be a connection here being that he is the only one, to my knowledge, who actually has this dirty and tattered newspaper article that literally looks ripped out of a newspaper…


Sorry to all those who feel like I stepped on thier feet.....it is very frustrating trying to sort out fun and games in what I thought was a legitimate and serious question.
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[Gene]

What is the name of the sandman/dealer?