quote:
Originally posted by derjager:
The Ostvolk series of awards was produced post war. No swastika, no problem producing the medal for vets.
--dj--Joe
The "Ostvolk" series was not a post war fabrication ..the awards were established (by Adolf) on July 14th 1942 .
The complete series is explained and each example illustrated starting on page 84 of --
" Medals & Decorations of the Third Reich "
by Dr. Doehle ..Printed in 1943.
These Awards were ignored for years , nobody wanted them because we (as collectors) knew very little about them ...so , they were always cheap. And besides , you know how some Collectors think ..."where's the Swastka?" so , why buy it ? It was never a high profile Award. I remember buying an OV 1st Cl Silver w/Swords for $5 back in 1968..Black Wound Badges were $2-$5.00 back then.
Since they were not a standard German Award (awarded by Germany to German Soldiers) I don't even know if the 1957 re strikes included this series but even if they were produced , I can't believe the production run would be that high .No factory would invest money to produce an item that would not be a fast or guaranteed seller ..and if there were not that many Vets who were awarded it and , there was no real "Collectors Market" for it (as opposed to the market for a 1957 EK for example)I don't believe they'd tool up for producing thousands of them. Picture how many TR-era ribbon bars we've seen around with that green ribbon ...
As far as the quality ...they've always been horrible. The open ribbon ring doesn't bother me because I've seen those around for years but....the finish never held up, and some do look like they've been spray painted (which makes it worse) Remember , years ago the trend was to spray your medals with a polyurethane sealer to stop the finish from flaking off ...Over the years I'm sure many of these had that "treatment" .
As far as the Repros ..since they make repro Black Wound Badges and even Tinnies today , they're probably making these now as well. The only way we'll be able to ID them would be for us to start comparing the examples we have and looking at die flaws/details/ribbons etc
