Cargo Submarine U-Deutschland Artifacts and Model

[GaryM]

I thought you might find this historically interesting,as it demonstrates just how much was written about Deutschland in the USA.

[LAscorpion]

intersting post...I may have inherited a UBOAT medal...still in the infancy of research but im hoping I have a rarity on my hands! Thought u may be intersted in it...it is in my pics and if you have ? id be happy to have a conversation with you! Thanks!

[Steve Zuke]

Sorry LAscorpion, but if it is the U-boat medal you have shown in you album, it is from WW ll and is not very rare. Even the ones from WW l are not that hard to get. It is a great conversation piece, but if you were looking for a big pay day I am sorry to disappoint you.

Best wishes.

Steve

[STBaltimore]

I don't know about that. I think double dimples are somewhat of a rarity... even today. I got to your site images LA and found that Zuke had already periscoped the lot of them. Thanks for posting up with us. We hope you'll stick around for a few more patrols. Some of us would confess that we're having a great time scoping things out in our own little corner of the Cyber lagoon with a little-known chapter in history.

[Steve Zuke]

Dwight,
Even if the item shown in post 621 is a fake it was well done, and for 10 bucks it would look good on my wall. The metal work that would have to go into creating a one off item like that is impressive. To make several and pass them off as real shows a wasted talent. Why pick something so obscure? If I could do that type of metal work, I would be counterfeiting Superbowl memorabilia or something along those lines. Still thanks for the heads up.

St Baltimore thanks for the article on the scrap yard explosion that was new information to me. I guess they may have used the hydrogen as a engine booster or something along those lines. I do not know any other reason why they would have a tank on board.

Gary thanks for posting the pictures.

Good night folks
Steve Zuke

[Steve Zuke]

I must agree with STBaltimore we are truly researching an obscure historical subject. I just had no idea this part of the Cyber lagoon was 64 pages deep and still counting. This is one of the biggest threads on this website! I am going off duty, STBaltimore you have the con.

Steve

[rogge16]

Steve: I see it's over $100 with three days left. There's a few people who believe it's real.

Luke

[rogge16]

LAscorpion: Have you posted your badge on the Forum yet? I'm sure you'll get all the answers you need if you do. It looks maybe to be made by Baqueville. I would get a second opinion though.
Good luck!

Luke

[drmessimer]

Steve et al: Regarding the plaque on Ebay, my doubt stems from five points, starting with the minor variations in the wording. For example, on the Baltimore-produced medallion the statement of authenticity reads, "Made From the "Deutschland" Ballast," whereas, the Ebay item reads in a rather clunky construction, "Made of the Ballast of U "Deutschland." That might seem picky, but it isn't. Given that the submarine logo on the Ebay item is very similar, though not identical, to the one used on the Baltimore-produced medallion and the similar stickpin, it reasonably follows that the Ebay plaque should have been commissioned by the same people. If so, why the variation? And why the change to "U Deutschland" when at the time the boat was universally referred to in the press as simply, Deutschland, and was the title used on the medallion?

A larger issue for me is that the submarine logo on the Baltimore produced medallion is extremely sharp and well detailed, whereas the similar logo on the plaque is comparatively crude. The difference is that the medallion was probably stamped whereas the plaque was definitely cast. Take a close look at the waves and the periscopes in the Ebay version and then compare them with the original, a sample of which is posted below. Again, based on the logo, it's reasonable to assume that the group that had the medallion made would have been responsible for the plaque. If so, why the marked reduction in quality?

Even more obvious is the difference between the lettering on the medallion, which is sharp and well defined, but on the plaque the lettering is sloppy and in an entirely different font.

The fourth point is that why would the medallion have been stamped and the plaque cast? Size? Not at all an issue since the plaque is only 3.25 inches long and slightly less in width; a size that offers no problems with stamping.

And there is a final point. Why haven't we seen more of these for sale? The Baltimore people produced the medallions in huge numbers, and though scarce today, they are still available. But these plaques have sown up only twice in the twenty-four years I have been collecting U-Deutschland memorabilia and one of them was an unquestioned fake.
For those reasons, the Ebay plaque looks entirely wrong to me, and is disturbingly similar to pewter fakes that showed up on Ebay a few years ago, though in this case the seller told my son that a "magnet stuck to it." Is there any possibility that this one is genuine? Maybe. But I seriously doubt it. Dwight

[drmessimer]

Well, It looks like I am wrong and the plaque is genuime or a copy of an identical original. After I posted my comments above, I recalled that somewhere I have a file on U-Deutschland artifacts from some time ago. So I went digging, expecting to find nothing; but there it was. I should have gone there first, but the folder was buried deep in the "out of sight, out of mind depository" It was in fact made by the same group that made the medallions, Prisoners of War Relief Committee, 24 N. Moore St., NYC. The plaque came in a thin box. Oh well, I was wrong once before and I probably will be again. Below is a very poor photo of an original plaque from the file. Dwight