Air
Crew
Ian
R.
We have had several e-mails asking about this, so we decided to put this page together with a few pointers to help identify the copy Air Crew Europe Stars from the real thing. The best way to identify the originals with confidence is to get your eye in and see as many as you can. It is a good idea to compare it with the patterning on an original 1939/45 (or other known original) star - obviously the lettering will be different (but same style), but the rest is the same. New copies are obvious; they are just not of the same quality and could be spotted a mile away. Old copies are harder, but still fairly easy to spot once you've seen a few. Some copies are better than others and all seem to vary quite a lot. Most of the features are comparative to some extent - you need to know what an original looks like.
Plate 1. An original Air Crew Europe Star with reference numbers for the pointers listed below.
The useful pointers are:-
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Plate 2. A very good copy of an Air Crew Europe Star. Note that not all the features are present on this copy, for example: the V and I join at the top, like an original. This copy does show the clockwise rotation of the words ‘AIR CREW EUROPE’ though, and some of the features are blunter than on an original, e.g. the crown features and the GRI cypher. Note the brass ring as well. |
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Plate 3. Close-up of the crown on a copy Air Crew Europe Star. This is a different medal to that shown in Plate 2. Note the bluntness of the feature marked ‘A’ and the fifth full pip in the central band, marked ‘B’. |
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Plate 4. Close-up of the crown on an original Air Crew Europe Star. This is a different medal to that shown in Plate 1. Compare the features marked ‘A’ and ‘B’, where there is only half a pip, but also the general appearance. The crown generally has more detail, depth and texture, but some of the features on the copy can look cleaner than on an original, the orb under the top cross for example. |
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Plate 5.
Another copy, but a different variety.
Note the large loop around the middle of the 'R' in the cypher. The 'W' in 'CREW' is offset clockwise, as
is the end 'E' of ' Thanks to Alan Jackson for the photo. |
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Plate 6. Another example of a copy, this time named on the reverse to an air gunner. This name appears on the casualty list, so if it were genuine it would be very interesting. This was recently offered for sale. |
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Plate 7. …and the back, with the engraved naming. Thanks to Mark for the pictures. |
Large ring late issues
Since the 1970s, WW2 stars have been issued as replacements, or first issues, with a larger suspension ring. This is generally unsoldered and looks too big compared to original post war issues from the 1940s/50s. The stars are, however, genuine and can be separated from the copies in much the same way as suggested above. Thanks to Damien for supplying the following pictures of an excellent example. In the first and second images, the squares are drawn for reference and are the same size within pictures. For the Air Crew Star you can see that the suspension ring is about the same diameter as the inner circle on the star face, for the original issue stars (here an Italy Star for reference), the ring is much smaller and typically narrower than the GRI cypher.
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Don’t get ripped-off:-
Battle of Britain clasps - identifying copies and originals
A fake Distinguished Service Medal
If you want to comment or add to this, you can e-mail me via i.hartley ‘at’ Lancaster.ac.uk.
Ian
2nd May 2018
Copyright
to Ian
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