Ribbon authenticity guide

[LizardKing]

Hello people...

I am aware that I'm not an expert so please don't be that hursh on me and correct me if wrong, this is my 1st 'guide' post...

I found online (fb group: Identifying German WWII FAKE Medals & Badges) some tips and tricks in order to spot whether a ribbon is a modern or not one and thought to share so it might help a few guys out there to keep a sharp eye on the details of our precious colourful thingies.

I've read a lot about UV light and the burn test but here's another tip to follow as a first way of identifying whether a ribbon gets the thumbs up, at least at first glance. It might be helpful when the actual ribbon is not on hand.

Back then, they used to produce the ribbons in two seperate threads. One was the warp and the other the weft. As a rule of thumb, if the ribbon has no weft then, most probably, isn't a good one.




The machines were different back then and nowadays producing the weft is more time consuming and expensive but I'm sure that there should be excellent and clever copies out there, especially on the more expensive ribbons.

Let's see two examples from my collection.


First we'll see the original ribbon on a War Merit medal... (sorry for the bad lighting, photo very old but the wanted detail clearly visible)



... and the detail:



As you can see the weft is clearly visible so the ribbon gets the OK.
Now let's see a modern made ribbon for a ww1 non-combatants EK2...



...and the detail:



As you see, no weft on that ribbon.
Luckily the price was way too low for such a medal and I expected the ribbon to be modern made so I didn't cry a lot.

I hope you enjoyed my first guide and you gained something to help with your future purchases!

Mike

[Sveimhugi]

Thank you for your work

[LizardKing]

You're welcome my friend! I hope it will help some fellow collectors!

[paulscoot]

A handy tip well explained thankyou .Regards,Paul

[MAP]

Definitely going to remember this one.

I like the drawing. Would there be a similar sketch for a modern weave pattern?

[LizardKing]

If I find anything I'll post it here! Unfortunately this is all I found... And as I said it is not mine but I found it and thought to share here enriched with photos from my collection!

[CBH]

Nice post Mike, the illustration is worth a thousand words. Thanks for the information.

[Wilko]

I need a little help on this even though I've become pretty good at authenticating original ribbon thanks to threads on forums as well as collector friends.

I'm almost totally convinced that this ribbon is genuine but would like a second opinion before committing to the purchase.

Any help confirming my opinion would be greatly apricated.

Ken

[Adrian]

The weave looks correct for an original ribbon. Off the top of my head I can't remember if there was a hard rule for stripe widths and distances apart so maybe check but I'd be happy from these photos. Obviously the feel of the ribbon in hand is something you can't pick up from an image.

[Wilko]

Thank you very much for the feed back Adrian. I just wanted a second opinion or two to clear any doubt I had.

I'm happy with the look from the pictures as well and the stripe widths seem to match the other Non Combatants ribbon in my collection.