Eisernes Kreuz 2. Klasse - from a Wehrmacht'soldier

[Ghibli]

Hi All,

Just purchased from a Wehrmacht'soldier family this EK2, no marking.

What do you think ? Any known manufacturer?

Thanks for your comments!

Gh.

[Adrian]

That would be a Wachtler & Lange - maker '100'.
The makers mark is on the ring, very faint on the obverse side, you can see it in the pic.

[Ghibli]

Wow, Adrian, you have very good eyes - the expert eyes - I did not even notice the "100", but that a great news! Thanks a lot!

[Woolgar]

Yes you have a nice W&L in your possession

Nick

[Ghibli]

Thanks Nick! Always good to validate an EK is original.
So W&L is a rather common EK producer, right?

By the way, did someone already build a table showing the most frequent and rarest EK2 we can find? Most probably the market price would be related to the ease/difficulty to find a particular manufacturer - what do you think ?

Bye,

Gh.

[Anubis]

W&L is one of the most common maker.
I don't know about a rarity table. Schinkel B variants are very rare, übergrosse, little brother, some marked cross.

[Franz1944]

I think LDO are rare to find then PKZ's. Good qestion which PKZ are rare then others? (standerd EK)

[Adrian]

In my opinion, PKZ makers marked '60' and '125' are the hardest to find. LDO marked crosses are very hard to find except L/11 which are actually more common than the two PKZ crosses I just mentioned.
There are of course variants which are difficult to obtain, the Schinkel 'B' as previously stated, the 'Little Brother' Ubergrosse and even some 'standard' type EK2s, search for my threads entitled 'Unknown EK2' to see a couple of examples.

[enni]

W&L is one of the most common maker.
I don't know about a rarity table. Schinkel B variants are very rare, übergrosse, little brother, some marked cross.

Hello! What is the official term for "Little brother" in german? enni.

[Anubis]

I don't know how german people call it, it's a basic Ubergroße (47mm x 47mm) that has had its frame filed down to the standard issue size (44mm x 44mm). It's distinguishing characteristics are the Ubergroße core, which no one else used, its low bead-count, and its unusually narrow (filed) rims.