wwii axis reenactment forum

ive got sitting around a wound badge i picked up a while ago that is a 20 july version in silver i was wondering how can i tell if it is a proper job or fake junk as im looking at selling it and dont want to have people over thanks dave

Only a few of these awarded to those who were wounded in the attempt to kill Hitler in 1944.
Three grades,black (made of real silver and high lights blackened) Silver,again made of real silver and should be marked 800,Gold version solid silver with gold high lights.
This badge has been faked to death,you could post pictures of it on Wehrmacht awards forum and get an opinion.

Hi there
Just to add a bit more to the above comment which is perfectly correct.
Only 24 of these awards were made, and unlike some other rare awards no duplicates were authorised.
Sorry to disappoint but there's hardly any chance it's going to be real. The only place the surviving pieces are 'hanging around' are in some of the finest private collections in the world. The only thing you could do is take it to a metalurgist to have a sample scraped and tested for silver content and even then it will most likely be a fake even if it was real silver. Authentication would never be accepted/proved unless it had a proven history connecting the one in your hand to one of the twenty four men in that room on the day. Ie - your grandad or relative personally took it from (for instance) General Jodl, there was a letter from Jodl's family confirming this and more from witnesses to the event/photos showing the badge's life through the last 67 years/period deployment docs showing that the person who claimed to have taken it really was in the general area at the time etc.
As Brigadefuhrer said this badge has been faked over and over again, and in the realms of probability its practically impossible.
But if it were real, mein got, it'd be worth some money!

Thanks for helping I'm going to look into it I can't see it is a proper one but it does look very nice and there is no problem it staying with me or if someone would like it to do the same in there collection I'm no medal person i'm into moving things .

Fake and be sure of it. One of the most faked items around. (Sorry).

I have to agree with Tychsen, John and Panzer Wit....

You would have more chance to win the lotto than find a real one...

As said above these are heavily faked...

Your best bet as John said is to upload a picture on to the Wehrmacht Awards Forum- Wound Badge Section.

- and have a look here it should answer most of your questions:

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/wound_b ... 0_july.htm

http://www.wehrmacht-awards.com/forums/ ... light=juli

Regards

Only three siver ones were awarded to:

Herman Fegelein Gruppenfuhrer
Adolf Heusinger Generalleutnant
G Borgman Oberstleutnant

Though there was six awarded grade unknown (assumed black)