Craig, If you�re not contesting all of the other evidence. And you just want to address this one issue - that at least is some progress forward and will save a lot of time.
quote:
�How you think real SA Honor daggers got discovered in a box somewhere, ruined, then sprinkled throughout time (50 years) and the globe (4 countries and many US states), without motive for profit, and how the faker got it JUST RIGHT, compared to a photo that was discovered decades after his creation.�
First I don�t know that they all necessarily came out of a single �box�. Although certainly there were large scale operations making fakes in the period after the war. Which gradually accelerated to the extent that Mr. Stephens book on fakes was very much welcomed by the collecting community when it was first published. With earlier published �booklets� actually preceding it. And I think its safe to assume that the counterfeiting activity had been ongoing for a significant period of time prior to the various publications. With at least one well known NSKK fake going back to 1955. And a large number of others made on or about the same time.
And if we go back 50 years or so to some other much less expensive fakes. Fakers who altered groups* of original items as their primary method of faking most likely (in my own view) acquired the items in singles or in small lots. Made the �product improvements". And sold them for a profit - albeit not the hugh ones like some fakes are currently bringing today.
As for the distribution of the fakes it happened the usual way, with items being sold all over the world for years and years and years. And just because the war was over it did not mean that veterans did not want to own a piece of history that they may have �missed out on�. There was guy I worked with who was a �Huey� pilot in Vietnam. He was so busy staying alive, and doing his job, that he did not have time to acquire any souvenirs while he there. I had a VC Chicom Tokarev pistol, and Mosin�Nagant carbine with a whole lot of shrapnel in the wood. Both of them are his now because I thought that he would appreciate them more, for which he was very grateful.
And PLEASE forget the Offermann photo as �proof� of the legitimacy of the current �H�hnlein" daggers. It's NOT the same dagger. And the dagger that FJS posted doesn't help you either.
PS: When you have some spare time, maybe you could look at the observation from Mark C. Yerger the SS historian/author?
And Houston: Even if if you choose to completely ignore it, a reasonable �burden of proof� for the silver markings being fakes has already been met. FP
* Fakers, being businessmen who wanted to maximize profits and decrease costs (like a regular business). If they were are going to invest in making molds for casting etc. etc. Would they want to make just one? Or would they want to make a batch of fakes to spread out the costs?? Which is what happened here. Which accounts for the different types of chain sets as they ran out of parts. And the oftentimes noticeably indifferent quality of the machine engraved signatures.
