Atlantic Star with Air Crew Europe clasp

[Hastriq]

Picked this up at a show this weekend for a good deal, and wanted to share it here.






The medal has some odd things going on with it, but I took a flyer on it because of the price. Do you think the star or clasp are original? The patina on the star is unlike any others I have, seeming to be very weathered/corroded on the top surfaces but still relatively clean/shiny in the nooks and crannies. The bar has oxidation on the edges as well, although the front face has none. The join in the suspension ring is very rough and heavily oxidized also.







Happy to have it in the collection either way, even if just as a talking point about the Air Crew Europe star (which I hope one day to add), but I wanted to take the learning opportunity and get other people's thoughts as well.

Thanks in advance!

[Stinkpotpete]

It's been awhile since I've researched these, but the font on the star looks good for an original. I think the rest looks good, too. It probably spent a lot of time out of sight, with the oxidation. IMHO I'd say it's a good one. There are other here who know more and can give you more info.

[paulscoot]

Medal looks fine, The clasp looks iffy to me, Here's mine for comparison, Regards Paul

[Watchdog]

Medal looks fine, The clasp looks iffy to me, Here's mine for comparison, Regards Paul

I agree and the ribbon looks original too.

The stars are fairly common but it is the clasp that is the hard bit and which bumps up the value. The lettering looks a little "rounded" to my eye. However, as these were issued loose in the packet with the ribbon many would have been lost and this could be a legitimate replacement albeit not an issued piece.

Regards

Mark

[Hastriq]

Thanks for the replies! That’s too bad about the clasp, but I suppose not too surprising given the rarity…I like the idea of it being added later as a replacement, but I suppose there’s really no way to know.

Mark, can you clarify at all what you mean when you say the letters look “rounded”? Do you mean the font/shape of the letters themselves is too curved, or that the surface of the top of the letters looks too convex? The font looks very similar to me between mine and Paul’s examples, but I could see Paul’s maybe being flatter on the top surfaces of the letters if that makes any sense.

[Watchdog]

Mark, can you clarify at all what you mean when you say the letters look “rounded”? Do you mean that the surface of the top of the letters looks too convex? The font looks very similar to me between mine and Paul’s examples, but I could see Paul’s maybe being flatter on the top surfaces of the letters if that makes any sense.

Yes that does make sense and is what I mean. It's hard to tell from a photograph except with those copies that have holes either in the wrong place or the wrong size for instance. If you can I suggest having a medal specialist look at it in hand.

Regards

Mark

[Adrian Stevenson]

The Battle of Britain clasp to the 1939/45 Star: identifying originals and copies

[paulscoot]

The devils in the detail, check out the position of the "teeth" to the lettering ,I must admit that the clasp on your star is of better quality than the usual ebay rubbish. The site that Adrian linked to above is the one I used when I started out collecting it's very good. Regards Paul

[Hastriq]

Thanks everyone! It's true, there really are so many little details. I came across the Lancaster site as well, and was trying to compare with the image there, but even having the blown-up pictures next to each other it's so hard to tell without having handled a definitively real one. I'll definitely see what I can do about getting someone to examine it in hand. Glad it's good enough quality to at least be a reasonable display proxy.

I also saw something in my research as I was going down the rabbit hole about these that a rounded edge between the arms on the reverse of the actual star can be a red flag...is that something that others have also heard of? This one definitely has that rounded edge rather than the \_/ shape that most of my other stars have, but it's not a common thing that I see mentioned, and like you said it seems to tick a lot of the originality boxes especially with the details on the front.

[mjw]

In my opinion the clasp is a reproduction. From one of the photos it appears to be far too thick. Lay it against a common example ie France And Germany etc. They should be identical.

Kind regards.