Another thing to be careful of is dealers/sellers who over expose shots (or simply use a scanner) which can tend to amplify the silver aspect of an award.
Take for example this rather tempting, very silvery Nahkampfspange I bought some years ago...
...and compare to what actually arrived. More zinc than silver wash in fact. Still a nice award but in a similar vein to Scott, not exactly what was represented on the website.
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