Hoxter Prussian-Pattern Kripo Disk

[Brig]

A while back I picked up a small assortment of bringbacks from the granddaughter of an American WWII vet. The vet evidently had an eye for trophies, I also picked up a 116th Panzer Traditions Badge, and there were several Kriegsmarine badges, of which I picked up a U-Boat and a Destroyer.

In the lot was this strange little disk with the Prussian eagle on it, I'd never seen such a thing but recalled Gestapo disks were similar. After poking around I learned what it was. For a brief period in 1934-37 when Goering headed up the Kripo, the Prussian Kripo used this style disk. When Himmler absorbed them all, the disk changed to the more well-known disk with the national eagle and a number on it. This were ordered destroyed. Naturally, some always seem to escape the smelter. Evidently somewhere between 25 and less than 50 of these are known to have survived (number might be old, but that was the stat I found). I had Dan Bible check it, because I figured no way it could be real, but he gave it a thumbs up.

From what I've gathered, the number next to the town (in this case, Hoxter), was representative of seniority. In a town as small as Hoxter, it might not be uncommon for only 2 or 3 officers to be employed.

Moral of the story...stuff's still out there. I have been very lucky to pick up a couple pieces of it over the years