Deutsches Schutzwallehrenzeichen original or fake?

[nvidia101]

hello, is this an original medal mounted on genuine ribbon?

[Adrian Stevenson]

The medal is fine. I will leave others to comment on the ribbon.

Cheers, Ade.

[KMMorris]

Nice early medal, ribbon well I am not sure looks to be good.
Morris

[Menno]

Hi,

Here's mine to compare. I bought it as an original years ago, but now notice
the surface is not as smooth as yours. Now I'm in doubt if it's ok.









Comments anyone?
Menno
ps sorry for the poor lightning on the foto's

[nvidia101]

its either buying the first one i posted or this one.. but i think condition wise first one would probably be a better choice, assuming the ribbon is genuine, since there basically the same price?

[big ned]

IMO all the medals are originals. However, I believe the first one shown is a pre 1941 brass based bronze plated award and the other two are 1944 type zinc versions.

The ribbons are harder to pick I think. Some say a black light test will show up a fake ribbon because the white part will 'glow', but others say that this is not proof as some late war originals will appear to as well. There is also some who say that repro ribbons are wider, I personally don't know. The best bet I've heard of is to try the 'burn test', but again, there are for and againsts to the validity of this method.

It is said that 7 out of 10 have repro ribbons as a hoard of over 30,000 were found in a factory inventory in the early 90's less ribbons and award packets. Consequently, both these items were reproduced to help sell the medals (there is another argument to the veracity of these packets by Carl Poellath, but that's another matter).

If I were to guess, I'd plump for first one repro, next two o.k., but it's a guess really! If anyone knows the definitive answer I'd love to hear it!

Regards, Ned.

[nvidia101]

i guess if you where to pick it would be the first one since its a pre1941 version instead of 1944.