If Frog Prinz actually had any experience with these daggers, and not just photographs of them, he'd know that these are NOT engraved (none of them), but acid etched. How many have you actually held in hand, Frog? Don't make me chase you down with my Segway! Gailen knows I can do it! I'm dying to know who you are anyway. Seriously, lets do lunch!
I really believe this: a bunch of dumb counterfeiters got a hold of a box of honor daggers, and screwed them all up (according to the Freds), for no profit motive at all. Sounds reeealllly plausible. With all of these marking tools available, why didn't they spend a whole $10 to mark them so the freds would like them more?
More likely: Huhnlein and his staff were in a rush to produce a lot of gifts for high end dignitaries at some NSKK road race, and Huhlnein gave his adjutant his own dagger, and said, hey, get me a bunch of these! And the adjutant did his best, including getting a bunch of half-assed chains copied at some local jeweler in Berlin, and did his best. When I was an adjutant for 2/11, and the Battalion Commander tasked me with doing some last minute thing, you'd be surprised at the crap I came up with on short notice. Anybody want a Kinkos photocopy of a fancy lithograph, framed with a plaque, that has the name of the guest of honor mis-spelled? Yes, all from an "official" USMC command! Not saying this happend in 1939, but it certainly is possible.
I can't wait for some collector in 50 years to find the lithograph with that plaque, and say that it's fake. He won't have a historical telescope, to see the laugh we all had on that day. They'll tell you that "Marines wouldn't do that" and that "photocopying copywrited material was illegal."
Gailen knows I can do it! I'm dying to know who you are anyway. Seriously, lets do lunch!
