D.A.K. matchboxes find

[Semovente]

Good Evening Gents ...i wanted to share this recent junk shop find !..i was in work and went in to this little junk shop in a town near to the place i work !..well my eyes clocked this old card board boxs but stamped in faded words were in German "A little gift from the Leader for his Soldiers"...well my eyes fell out when i looked in the old box !!...DAK matchboxes with contents & with Palmtree emblem & Swastikas on the front with the date 1941 etc ...i did a deal & was very happy chap !...
I have had German matches before but never Afrika korps with original card board box too !?.

[Jean-Loup]

Plus, they are “Romels” apparently!

[bobgee526]

Great find! Congrats!

[Semovente]

Thanks guys ..
Well as i said ive not seen these before !...so something of a little surprize when i found them in the junk shop !...the shops owner said he had them from a House clearance but knew no more than that !..the match boxes are made of thin wood sections with a paper label applied round the wood to hold it in place and a striker on the side !
The Lorenz Romeis Gersfeld i presume is a maker ?...as Gersfeld comes up as been in Fulda district , Hesse in the Rhon moutains central Germany !
The pics show some other Wartime examples ive seen & no doubt Italian troops got hold of these !..but does any one else know of any Italian examples of matches issued to italian soldiers ?...

[Gaspare]

can't imagine something like this being period.. But if you guys like them so be it! What a find!

[Semovente]

can't imagine something like this being period.. But if you guys like them so be it! What a find!

Well i dont quite understand your logic there Gaspare ?...but thank you !?...i think ?....

[Mike TM]

I agree with Gaspare. Perhaps I am wrong, but I don't believe on these boxes.

Regards
Mike

[Semovente]

I agree with Gaspare. Perhaps I am wrong, but I don't believe on these boxes.

Regards
Mike

Why not ?...if it helps Mike.. i bought them off a guy i know who is not a Militaria dealer or has the slightest interest in military items !.he got them from a local Houseclearance off a Deceased person !!..also i only paid £10 for them not a big amount like £50 or more !!..after i haggled with the shop owner over the price !..so it cost me the price of a packet of Cigarettes !...hardly a massive profit for him ..even if he got them for nothing to start with..which would not cover the cost of faking eight boxes of matches to look like DAK ones !..including the old cardboard box !!...i took them to my German collector mate of 45 years german collecting & he called me a "jammy B'stard "..��...like me he had never seen these Dak match boxes before , but after handerling & examination he was in no doubt they were correct etc !..i am in no doubt also they are what they perport to be & are a Veteran souvenier bring back from WW2.

[SkaraBrae]

I also do not think they are original. Besides the way they are designed and labeled, the "Hitler Gift" was a dumb faker idea. A box of matches to soldiers as a "gift" from the dictator of the country is silly. Cigarettes were a ration item, given free to soldiers. In civilian life, boxes of matches were usually free with cigarettes, often an advertising giveaway from organizations. One of the most common for example was the Großeinkaufs-Gesellschaft Deutscher Consumvereine m.b.H. (GEG) Boxes of matches could also be sold, but the cost was negligible, like 1 Reichspfennig. Making a big deal of giving soldiers a gift of something that was free anyway is nonsense.

[Semovente]

I also do not think they are original. Besides the way they are designed and labeled, the "Hitler Gift" was a dumb faker idea. A box of matches to soldiers as a "gift" from the dictator of the country is silly. Cigarettes were a ration item, given free to soldiers. In civilian life, boxes of matches were usually free with cigarettes, often an advertising giveaway from organizations. One of the most common for example was the Großeinkaufs-Gesellschaft Deutscher Consumvereine m.b.H. (GEG) Boxes of matches could also be sold, but the cost was negligible, like 1 Reichspfennig. Making a big deal of giving soldiers a gift of something that was free anyway is nonsense.

Well there you go then , so you didnt read my comments on the manner of my finding the match boxes then ??.. You are in other words saying iam ' pulling the wool over your eyes ' by your comments ??
Also calling out the experience of my friend of collecting Wehrmact militaria of many years aswell ?..plus two Afrika korp collectors who PM. with a veiw to purchase the items for their collections !?..with respect Sir iam not a liar however Silly you might think it or find it !?

[leaftree]

Don't take it as a personal...

Semovente,

I wouldn't take the doubting of the originality of the matches personal. Most of us at one time or another had something in their collection they thought was legit, turned out it wasn't. I am one of those.

I think the doubt shown by members is well founded. I don't know myself if they are legit or not, but I lean toward not.

For me the purple printed tag, looks to be of extremely low quality... something photo copied on a old printer.
I would think for 1941 the quality would be better, similar to the other boxes shown in the thread. (If it was late 1944 early '45 I could see the poor quality as plausible)


Regards,

[Semovente]

Semovente,

I wouldn't take the doubting of the originality of the matches personal. Most of us at one time or another had something in their collection they thought was legit, turned out it wasn't. I am one of those.

I think the doubt shown by members is well founded. I don't know myself if they are legit or not, but I lean toward not.

For me the purple printed tag, looks to be of extremely low quality... something photo copied on a old printer.
I would think for 1941 the quality would be better, similar to the other boxes shown in the thread. (If it was late 1944 early '45 I could see the poor quality as plausible)


Regards,

Iam not at all in fact iam very happy with them & have turned down two offers to purchase the matches.. but i dont make it up !!.. thats what happened when i got them !
i too thought after my purchase that these were perhaps too good to be true but for £10 i gambled for the cost of a pack of smokes !..but i know & trust the source and were he got them !..if he was fibbin why sell them to me for £10 only why not say £50 or £100 !?..hardly worth while for a mere £10 profit !..that dont make sence to me if you were out to deceive someone !?...second i trust second to none my collector friend who i showed them to he is no fool when it comes to any thing Wartime German & bought a box of me there & then !...the thing is i find in this game is never say never ..cause it aint always what or the way you think it is or should be !!...Semovente

[bodes]

Why not ?...if it helps Mike.. i bought them off a guy i know who is not a Militaria dealer or has the slightest interest in military items !.he got them from a local Houseclearance off a Deceased person !!..also i only paid £10 for them not a big amount like £50 or more !!..after i haggled with the shop owner over the price !..so it cost me the price of a packet of Cigarettes !...hardly a massive profit for him ..even if he got them for nothing to start with..which would not cover the cost of faking eight boxes of matches to look like DAK ones !..including the old cardboard box !!...i took them to my German collector mate of 45 years german collecting & he called me a "jammy B'stard "..��...like me he had never seen these Dak match boxes before , but after handerling & examination he was in no doubt they were correct etc !..i am in no doubt also they are what they perport to be & are a Veteran souvenier bring back from WW2.

Using your argument, these matches would be even more real had somebody given them to you for free...I personally don't believe these were pre-1945 made either, but why does my opinion matter?....They're yours at a modest investment...Put them in a AK grouping and enjoy....If somebody is offering to buy them at a handsome profit, take the money and don't look back...The decision is up to you....Bodes

[Semovente]

Using your argument, these matches would be even more real had somebody given them to you for free...I personally don't believe these were pre-1945 made either, but why does my opinion matter?....They're yours at a modest investment...Put them in a AK grouping and enjoy....If somebody is offering to buy them at a handsome profit, take the money and don't look back...The decision is up to you....Bodes

Thank you for your imput Bodes ...well i can tell you ive never seen these Dak matches before in all my time collecting ..even on the internet with all the fakes of Waffen SS match boxes & Herman Goerings personal box of matches etc that crap you get for sale !!...ive looked & looked but no Dak matches have turned up in all the searches ive done !...except the small cardboard box ive found with originaly eight match boxes in content in a small dusty junk shop in the middle of Rural Wales !!...odd that or what ??...my best collecting German militaria friend of the same town also is in the same position & he could have got to them before me !?...but he said exactly the same thing when he first looked at them in his front room ! So there you go but iammore than happy to hang on to them for now & we shall see ?

[SkaraBrae]

Well there you go then , so you didnt read my comments on the manner of my finding the match boxes then ??.. You are in other words saying iam ' pulling the wool over your eyes ' by your comments ??
Also calling out the experience of my friend of collecting Wehrmact militaria of many years aswell ?..plus two Afrika korp collectors who PM. with a veiw to purchase the items for their collections !?..with respect Sir iam not a liar however Silly you might think it or find it !?

In militaria collecting for almost 50 years, I have always found it best to evaluate the item, not the story. I don't doubt you found them where you found them, but that doesn't make them original. "Trust your eyes, not your ears" is a maxim I have relied upon since the beginning for me, in the 1960's, and it hasn't let me down often. The leader of the country giving his soldiers as a "gift" the cheapest item imaginable, something they received for free, would be regarded in German culture as very insulting. There are many faked matchbooks out there, and these are in that category IMO.