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Re: Another Erkennungsmarken ID
No worries- and it's anyone's guess how many discs are disgustingly taken from graves, but I suspect the number isn't really all that high; 17+ million men served during the war so that means a huge number of discs relative to those lost or missing; they're dug up by the dozen every day in Europe either having been discarded at the end of the war, collected and dumped at surrender sites and POW camps and many were just put away in drawers. Half vs. whole doesn't mean anything either as it seems to have been a common practice by captors to 'destroy' discs by either breaking them in half or even in quarters- a friend of mine in the Czech Republic regularly finds half a disc one time out an the other sometimes months or years later. Even coming with insignia or documents doesn't mean anything as this same friend has found 'packets' of stuff thrown away by men trying to hide their service when the war ended- a pistol, disc, cuff title and eagles or Soldbuch, badges and shoulderboards gathered and buried- that sort of thing.
Generally speaking it's always best to ask a seller if he has any reason to believe a disc was taken from a grave, and where possible deal only with the guy who dug it up so he isn't speaking for anyone else if he denies it- or keep to western European sources. More dedicated sellers are less-likely to be dodgy since they'd have a reputation to protect and wouldn't deal with grave-robbers knowingly if it meant they'd be blacklisted by decent collectors- it should even mean they'd be more wary of unknowingly getting in robbed items for fear they'd pay the price were it found they weren't being duly cautious.
Ohhhhh- pillage then burn...
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10-16-2011 05:14 PM
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Re: Another Erkennungsmarken ID
Gday Matt,
With you mate.Thanks for the reassurance.
By the way my German is improving every day LOL.
Cheers cobber and all the best
Dave
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