Recently, on one famous forum WW2.RU, an auction was held, on the one hand, it seemed to be quite ordinary – well, a dug Iron Cross, and even in proper condition, and on the other hand, a very instructive example of why it is important to clean and identify finds before selling.
And everything would be fine, but when the seller decided to find out what kind of cross with an eye it really was, it turned out that he had dug up in the Kaliningrad region not the Iron Cross, but the Knight’s Cross. He had already sold the cross for 850 rubles (11.5 EUR), but subsequently abandoned the deal, for obvious reasons.
Wikipedia gives a comprehensive description of this award from the time of the Third Reich:
Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) is a degree of the military order of the Iron Cross, the highest order of the Third Reich, recognizing special bravery in battle or success in leading troops during World War II. Introduced on September 1, 1939 with the restoration of the Order of the Iron Cross. He had five degrees, which appeared as the war progressed. The most common was the lowest degree – the Knight's Cross itself, which was awarded to 7,365 people.
It turns out that the digger raised one of the 7365 crosses. Calculate the chance of raising the Knight's Cross throughout the entire theater of military operations of the Second World War, is it one in a billion? Or even more?
In the photo above is Erwin Rommel, holder of the Knight's Cross of the LCD with oak wreaths, known as the “Desert Fox”.
From the broken ears it is clear that we do not have an iron cross, because they did not have LCD ears and were attached to a needle.
It’s a pity that the condition of the find is very sad, but with a good restorer and direct hands, the find can be brought into very proper shape.
So, comrades, a simple and logical conclusion – before selling, the find must be cleaned and identified, so as not to sell the rarity for 850 rubles!
No fluff!