12-22-2010, 10:23 PM (This post was last modified: 12-22-2010, 10:24 PM by Dat Nguyen.)
Greetings,
A few months ago, I was introduced to a collector with the largest personal collection militaria that I have ever seen. The size of his collection was obscene ... in a good way. He did have a couple of WWII Soviet items but he acquired a lot of interesting item. One of the most interesting I will put here in this forum; hopefully with Art's approval since it is out of the scope of the interest.
For you viewing pleasure an actual production die ... any guess what badge was made from this die?
Art is not allow to guess since he knows it already :thumbsup
You guys have THE first look at it before I posted to the other forum.
Dat, just so you know that I actually looked at this and didn't blow it off, I'm posting a reply. However, the only German stuff I know anything about - especially from that year is the Iron Cross - but...since the date and symbol in it suggest something more sinister, I am at a loss.
I am always amazed at seeing any original die since that is highly uncommon (and very illegal if you are talking about Soviet dies).
Thank you for your reply. This collector has lots of original dies that were salvaged from a scrap yard. This one has a negative image, but he also has the positive image one. The positive one were the ones that made the negative image, which then were the production dies that made all the badges.
Yes this die was used to make the Iron Cross, but which one?
Perhaps it was a generic die? I mean, as far as I know the only Iron Cross who had a different size was the grand cross -awarded only to Herman Göring- so this may have been used to cast the core of the remaining classes.
There's nothing in the streets
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Are now parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight The Who, Won't get fooled again
The Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class are about the same size around 44mm
The Knight Cross is a bit bigger at a tad bit over 48mm
drum roll please ..... this is the die that made Herman Goering Grand Cross ... it is way over 48mm in measurement and that is not including the additional measurement of the frame.
The collector who purchased this die told me that the seller who sold it to him describe that it was the die for the Knight Cross, but it is way too big to be a Knight Cross.
Hope y'all like the photo. My X-mas present to the forum. All I need now is to find some special Soviet award to post.
One of my favorite parts of visiting the CAF Museum in Moscow as a kid was staring at this glass case full of IKs. They don't know the exact count, just know it's 2 metric tons. :thumbsup
Extremely rare, if a real Grand Cross die. I'd simply guess that very, very few ever exsisted in the first place although I have limited knowledge of EK production information.
"patina imparts character" - PJS
A wise man said: 'you should not pay a premium for what you want beyond your comfort level, and always ensure there is a mutually agreeable return policy.'
). 
