1939 Spange zum Eisernen Kreuzes 1er klasse 1914

[paulscoot]

Hi folks, I have had this Spange in my possession for a number of years and believe it to be 100% original , As you can see it has no makers mark but trawling through CM sgt Jims's excellent spange thread I now believe it to be by the unknown maker Eugen Schmidhaussler,
any thoughts good or bad Gentlemen ? Regards ,Paul

[harryamb2]

looks ok to me.

[rbminis]

It looks okay to me as well. It looks as though the front may have been cleaned at one time.
Here is my latest example, with photos of both of my examples posted as well.
Ralph.
https://www.warrelics.eu/forum/1939-...ussler-601934/

[paulscoot]

Thanks for that link to your thread Ralph, Mine looks like it was made from the same die as your left hand one . Would I be right in thinking that mine (& yours on the left) are made of Tombak and are therefore early wartime awards ? Regards ,Paul

[big ned]

Thanks for that link to your thread Ralph, Mine looks like it was made from the same die as your left hand one . Would I be right in thinking that mine (& yours on the left) are made of Tombak and are therefore early wartime awards ? Regards ,Paul

The clasp is actually made from nickel silver.

Regards, Ned.

[paulscoot]

Thanks big Ned for putting me straight on the material, would I be right in thinking then that nickel silver would be early production & that maybe there are identical but zinc versions out there ? regards ,Paul

[big ned]

Thanks big Ned for putting me straight on the material, would I be right in thinking then that nickel silver would be early production & that maybe there are identical but zinc versions out there ? regards ,Paul

Yes, N/S was used on the very earliest awards of various types, but even then the makers using it were limited due to the high cost of nickel thus meaning many other makers used tombak/buntmetall during the same period. Juncker being a top drawer maker of early awards made N/S Luft and Army Flak badges, Pilot badges, Spanienkreuz, IAB's and PAB's etc. but this soon ceased once the war was well under way and supplies became scarce. I think it's fairly certain that due to war needs/costs, N/S ceased being used almost entirely by early to mid 1941 when it came to awards and medals, possibly earlier.

Regarding the maker Eugen Schmidthausser, I'm not sure there's evidence they produced zinc Spanges.

Regards, Ned.

[paulscoot]

Thanks for the reply Big Ned , Concise & informative as ever ( a gold mine of information) thanks again ,Regards , Paul