10-01-2002, 11:31 PM
Eugene,
I’ve read your post, and I know the conventional theory. Durov is known as skeptic, and unless he sees a document with three official seals he wouldn’t believe it. It’s a good quality when you are writing a book, but since we don’t have any facts we might as well speculate. I think the conventional theory doesn’t take into account several minor aspects:
a) If you try (I just did) to insert a brass H&S into the holes of the OGPW it doesn’t fit. If you try to file the bendable wires on the brass H&S to make them thinner they will just break before you can bend them again. You need a special high speed (not to damage the enamel) thin drill bit to remove broken original rivets, and a drill press to avoid breaking the bit. How many soldiers during the war had access to such equipment? Maybe some at specialized shops to repair damaged equipment;
b) After the war award repairs were usually handled by jewelers, so how come jewelers all over the country used the same technique? Besides in more recent times it was very hard to find a hat badge with removable H&S to use as a replacement, it would probably be easier to make a replacement from scratch.
The unconventional theory on the contrary explains it all perfectly. There was a large demand for OGPWs, and they were assembled by different factories, so when they ran out of gold H&S they used brass replacements. After all it’s a well known fact, that back then awards were made/assembled not only by mints.
I realize of course that this is just a theory, and I can’t prove any of that. So I felt uncomfortable selling this piece, and will send it to the buyer for free.
Alexei
I’ve read your post, and I know the conventional theory. Durov is known as skeptic, and unless he sees a document with three official seals he wouldn’t believe it. It’s a good quality when you are writing a book, but since we don’t have any facts we might as well speculate. I think the conventional theory doesn’t take into account several minor aspects:
a) If you try (I just did) to insert a brass H&S into the holes of the OGPW it doesn’t fit. If you try to file the bendable wires on the brass H&S to make them thinner they will just break before you can bend them again. You need a special high speed (not to damage the enamel) thin drill bit to remove broken original rivets, and a drill press to avoid breaking the bit. How many soldiers during the war had access to such equipment? Maybe some at specialized shops to repair damaged equipment;
b) After the war award repairs were usually handled by jewelers, so how come jewelers all over the country used the same technique? Besides in more recent times it was very hard to find a hat badge with removable H&S to use as a replacement, it would probably be easier to make a replacement from scratch.
The unconventional theory on the contrary explains it all perfectly. There was a large demand for OGPWs, and they were assembled by different factories, so when they ran out of gold H&S they used brass replacements. After all it’s a well known fact, that back then awards were made/assembled not only by mints.
I realize of course that this is just a theory, and I can’t prove any of that. So I felt uncomfortable selling this piece, and will send it to the buyer for free.
Alexei
