Eisernes Kreuz 1. Klasse Battlefield Relic with mystery hole

[Chrish124]

[Chrish124]

Came accross this battlefield "relic". It has the hole below the hinge, that sofar I have only found on battlefield relics from Russia being sold on ebay. The core is very rusty, but the frame is very clean. There is dirt and corrosion stuck to the frame, but it comes off with some rubbing and in some spots someone had tried to polish it leaving very bright areas that don't seem typical for an iron cross (though I have never tried polishing one, to be fair). It is of 3 piece construction and the core is magnetic, the frame not. My gut says fake, but of course I could be wrong.

[Woolgar]

That cross was originally intended to be a screwback EK1 and the cut hole is for the anti-rotation pin

Nick

[rbminis]

That cross was originally intended to be a screwback EK1 and the cut hole is for the anti-rotation pin

Nick

Nick is correct.
Ralph.

[Chrish124]

Thank you for the information. I did clean it up a bit. Normally I don't do that, obviously, but someone had already attempted an amateurish polishing job leaving lots of scratches. It did reveal some pitting indicating this item is plated. Not so sure on the authenticity and with the rusty core it is hard for me to tell.

[Chrish124]

In order to help out those who search these forums for info, I want to close the loop on this item, now that I have more information. This is likely a post war reproduction possibly made from original parts, or using some original parts. The hole in the frame, just below the hinge is an anti-rotation pin hole from a Screw Back frame, as others have pointed out. One will notice that the only catch on original Iron Crosses that matches this one where those used by Carl Wild. Of course the hinge does not match those on Carl Wild Iron Crosses and the anti-rotation hole definitely does not fit, as Carl Wild never made screwbacks (at least not according to my reference books).

Interestingly, I had purchased this on Ebay when I first started collecting and didn't know that Ebay stuff is almost guaranteed fake. In recent years Ebay has gotten very strict about preventing people from selling Third Reich militaria on their platform, but during the Covid-19 epidemic, Ebay has sent most of their staff home and is apparently not checking what is being listed, as they are suddenly full of Third Reich items. Low and behold there are now several sellers hawking piles of these exact Iron Crosses. All are ground dug, with the cores rusted to the point where the dates cannot be used to identify them and typically pins broken off. New collectors should be very skeptical of any Pin Back Iron Cross with an anti-rotation.