Collector's Guide to World War 2 German Medals

Rating:
Summary: A flawed, but good beginners' pocket reference
Review: This book is a concise, standard reference work for Third Reich medal and badge collectors. Sadly, this field is a veritable minefield for collectors with fakes/copies/reproductions now possibly outnumbering original items.With reproduction techniques daily becoming more sophisticated (as prices soar), it is vital to use this work as a basic identification guide, but not as an absolute final authority of an items' originality. Especially useful is the organizational listing of badges and medals by types (e.g. Luftwaffe badges, Army badges, campaign medals, gallantry medals etc.) with a list of known manufacturers' contract LDO numbers, along with estimated numbers of badges/medals awarded. Information provided is limited by space and this can be frustrating as many awards (the Iron Cross for example) easily provide enough variation to require a complete book. The photos are crisp, but frustratingly small. The author is especially fond of the Eagle Order (once awarded to Lindburgh) and this section of the book is the most complete and well done. A number of very rare items are included (e.g. The Dunkirk Shield) but the overall effectiveness of the work is marred by the inclusion of several unawarded badges (the Army Balloon Observers' badge, the Luftwaffe Sea assault badge, the Balkan Shield) and outright fakes (e.g. the Lorient shield, type 1). While the author does often point out that these questionable medals/badges are rare and sometimes suspect, the collecting community would have been better served by a more complete treatment of these items. Several novice collectors I have met have sadly spent large sums of money on copies made in the 1960s, stating that they felt sure they were a rare and valuable find because they saw them in this book. Sadly, the authenticity of even a number of the items on the actual cover of the book has been questioned by medal historians. Overall this is a book worth having, but not a definitive work on the subject.