Kriegsverdienstkreuz 2.Klasse mit Schwertern marked 31 with a sharp 3, Real or Fake?

[RandomCollector4114]

Hello, This is my war merit cross second class by Hans Gnad, not the best condition, the surface coating and the ring have been through a lot before I bought it, Ribbon was bought from another place.
The marking has a unique feature, the three is made in the same sharp style as the majority of the threes from the iron crosses.
On the internet I can only find pictures of it with a more squared up shaped mark with a round three.
Can someone please help me? Is this medal from the war or a reproduction?
Many Thanks

[Adrian]

Here's one I found which looks very similar to yours.

[rbminis]

I have edited the title of your thread.
Please read the following thread regarding posting in this section of the forum.
The Use of German Terminology.
Ralph.

It looks like an original that has been painted gold.

[RandomCollector4114]

Thank you very much, I'm sorry I wrote the title wrong, I didn't want to misspell it

[rbminis]

Thank you very much, I'm sorry I wrote the title wrong, I didn't want to misspell it

Please read the thread I provided a link to, it gives you the names of most, if not all, of the awards.
Ralph.

[RandomCollector4114]

Hello again, I have decided to clean the medal and see if the gold paint will wear off revealing the medal or if it will stay on, to my surprize the bronze-like part of it turned into a silverish gold color, is this normal for a tombak medal?

[Adrian]

That is a better look.
I wondered about the colour but couldn't decide if the photos made it look more gold.

Don't go cleaning anything without posting for opinions first.

Some medals and awards are made of zinc and the finish is incredibly fragile. Cleaning these award with likely ruin them and render them worthless.

More often it's better to leave as is.

You need to take photos of your awards in natural light, not direct sunlight and make sure they are close and clear and crop them down so they fill the frame.

[RandomCollector4114]

Thank you very much, I hope I didn't ruin it, some time ago I went to my town's medal shop where they had it cleaned before, same colour appeared, then faded to the original bronze, hope it does that again in about a week, I can't remember how long it took last time

[Adrian]

If you have a look through the threads in this section, you will get an idea of how the colour varies. Some are more golden, some faded to a dull grey. Depends on the base metal, the manufacturer and the finish and way it was applied.