DDR coins, averse and reverse: Mark and Pfennige: From the 1960s and early 1970s
2 Mark, 50 Pfennige, 20 Pfennige, 10 Pfennige (Groschen), 5 Pfennige and 1 Pfennig pieces. All are of Aluminium with the exception of the 20 Pf. pieces.

DDR Coins, averse and reverse: 10 Mark piece, Buchenwald Commemoration 1972, 5 Mark Commemoration 20 Years DDR, 1969
5 Mark, Brandenburger Tor, 1971, Silver, 1 Mark piece 1971, 20 Pfennige, 10 Pfennige, 5 Pfennige and 1 Pfennig. All aluminium, Buchenwald is nickel, 25 Year commemoration is copper bronze.

DDR Banknotes have become very collectable, this was the last series of the mid eighties

It looks like is a construction prize sash or similar.

The sash reads in gold gothic text ‘Dem Sieger’ at one end and ‘w der Baumeissterschaft uber 10 km 1941’ (as far as I can read), at the other end. 

There is also a fringe on each end and an eagle and swaz. The sash is made from a red silk type material.

 This rifle:   http://www.vzduchovka.cz/prehled/43000/43000_en.html

 I will post some photos of the stock markings when I  can get some day light photos. 

This is not the normal military Vz 47 trainer:  http://www.vzduchovka.cz/prehled/40000/40000.html

It is a die stamped copper alloy good luck charm 20mm x 22mm c1930 ?.

Thanks to Hollywood, the image of the Thompson Submachine gun, (SMG), being carried by gangsters in a violin case, has been etched in people’s minds. However, although these may have occasionally been used, they would have only been of limited use. If this was a common method of concealing a firearm, law enforcement would have become suspicious of anyone they encountered carrying such a case, never mind a known hoodlum. 

My original viola case, bought direct from the current Auto Ordnance Corporation in New York, (part of Kahr Arms), in the late 1990's

There is a photo showing the John Stege, Chief of Detectives of the Chicago Police Department at the time this photo was taken, holding a violin case containing a TSMG, dated 1927. If you look carefully at the photo, you’ll notice that the gun, with the vertical foregrip fitted, will not fit into the case. Perhaps it was a publicity photo, to reassure the public that violin cases could not practically carry a ‘ready to fire’ Thompson.

John Stege of the Chicago Police Department

In modern times there have been a number of larger viola cases modified to house the Thompson SMG. Gordon Herigstad, a well-known collector, researcher, and author in the Thompson collector circles, designed and produced one such example. His case had a two-tier design, with the TSMG on the top tier, which once removed revealed a 100 round C Drum, a 50 round L Drum, four 20 round XX magazines and a box of ammunition in the lower tier.

Gordon Herigstad Viola Case

As pleasing to the eye that they are, Gordons and other modified viola cases, are modern hardcases for storing / transporting Thompson SMGs, which are not based on anything produced in the 1920’s/1930’s. There are however, several other hardcases which were developed to transport and store Thompson SMGs during the 1920’s and 1930’s.

There were two specific styles of hard cases produced in the 1920’s/1930’s: one known as the FBI/Police style and the other a briefcase style.
Probably the first cases produced in the briefcase style, although there may have been others prior to this, was designed by E. E. Richardson, an Auto Ordnance Corporation, (AOC), salesman, to transport his demonstration gun on his sales trips. This case is called by collectors, the Indiana hardcase; it was designed to hold a Thompson, and its unattached stock, together with an L drum and six XX magazines.

E.E. Richardson designed Indiana case

As the guns were bought by police and sheriff departments around the USA, they began to look for suitable hardcases to store and transport their Thompsons. These were manufactured by a number of companies, who also produced standard pieces of luggage.

Police style Thompson hardcase

The musical link to the Thompson followed with the Police hardcases, some believe these were initially modified Saxophone cases. Coincidently, the two primary manufacturers for most of the original Thompson hardcases, Swetnam and Chicago Luggage, were manufacturers of musical instrument cases.  However, a well-known Thompson enthusiast in the USA spent some time over 13 years ago, searching for what he called the ‘missing link’, between the Saxophone and the Police style case.  He failed to find a single saxophone hard case with a diagonal split opening, as found on the Police and FBI style cases. The design could have been developed from a standard box design; with the size and style adjusted accordingly for the relatively small production runs required for the Thompson gun orders, which would have been a simple and cost-effective solution.

That is not to say a Saxophone case could not be modified to hold a Thompson SMG; noted Thompson expert and author William J Helmer modified a tenor saxophone case for a Thompson SMG around 1970.

William J Helmer modified a tenor saxophone case

The Police style cases were designed, like Richardson’s Indiana case, to hold a Thompson SMG, its unattached stock, and an L drum, but only four XX magazines. The Police style cases usually have leather strap holders in the lid for a cleaning rod and spare parts kit metal container.

The metal spare parts containers were first requested by the United States Marine Corps, (USMC), in 1928. It was stipulated that the containers for the kits should fit into the XX magazine pouches that were issued to their marines. 

Page from the 1929 edition of the Auto Ordnance Corporation Price list & Catalog, (original American spelling)

As well as meeting the USMC requirement, these metal spare parts containers were sold to other customers, and are featured in the 1929 AOC Price list and Catalog. Therefore, if the Police style hardcases had the fixation to hold the metal container for the spare parts kits, it dates them from 1929 onwards.
There are other known examples of hardcases made for individual police departments with various different finishes and interiors, made of wood, metal, leather and vinyl. The Chicago Police Department Thompson cases held seven XX magazines and no drums. They had a black exterior with heavy studs around them.

Chicago Police Department Thompson guns with hardcases in Armoury

The USMC also had wooden hardcases, or rather chests, produced to transport and store their Thompsons. The chests had space for two guns, together with two L drums and XX magazines and magazine pouches.

USMC Thompson chest

In 1932, AOC ceased civilian sales of Thompson’s, in an attempt to bring the sale of the guns under control. This followed the bad publicity that criminal use of their product had brought them and Federal Laboratories of Pennsylvania, became their sole distributor. Federal Laboratories were also manufacturers of tear gas and less-lethal riot guns, as well as distributors of Police equipment including body armour. They also produced their own hardcase to transport not only a Thompson SMG, but also two of their less-lethal guns, with ammunition.  

Federal Laboratories Catalogue

FBI Thompson Case with Shotgun Cases

It was not until 1935, that the Federal Bureau of Investigations, (FBI), received their first 115 Thompson guns. They then received three bids to manufacture hardcases to the FBI specifications, for their Thompsons. The winning bid was won by the Kansas City Trunk Company.

These were similar to the Police style hardcases, designed to hold a Thompson SMG, its unattached stock, together with an L drum and four XX magazines. However, the position of the slots for the XX magazines, the L drum and the stock were not in the same locations. Historically, it was believed, indeed it was stated in Roger A Cox’s book, ‘The Thompson Submachine Gun’ in 1982, that the FBI designed case was poorly balanced. It was presumed, as the drum and box magazines were all placed together to the left of the case, that a fully loaded case would be unbalanced when being carried.

FBI Thompson Hardcase balance test

However, a Thompson enthusiast in the USA, questioned the logic of this in August 2023. Another enthusiast, then carried out a balance test with a fully loaded FBI style case and a similarly loaded Police style case, both made by Greg fox. The result was the FBI case proved to be the better-balanced case, see above, and below.

Police Thompson hard case balance test

A further issue with both the Police style and FBI hardcases is, when the lid is open and the Thompson is removed, the cases tend to fall backwards, as they are top heavy.  

The hardcases, known as Alabama cases, were also produced around the same period as the Police and FBI hardcases. These were produced in the briefcase style, like the Indiana hardcase, but were designed to hold only the gun and four XX magazines, with no provision for the L drum or the stock.

Alabama Hardcase

Not all Sheriff / Police departments in the USA had such lavish hardcases to store and transport their Thompsons. The example shown below is the case used by the Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Department, with their original Model of 1921 Thompson.

Lincoln County, New Mexico Sheriff’s Department Thompson hardcase

In the 1920/30’s, a number of prison guards in the USA were armed with Thompson guns. At the U. S. Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia, an inmate manufactured a homemade, or rather prison made, hardcase for a guards Thompson gun.

U. S. Penitentiary at Atlanta, Georgia 'prison made' Hardcase

The US Postal Service, (USPS), was another US government agency that employed the Thompson guns to supplement their security. The USPS had their own take on what was required in their hardcases. Produced in the briefcase style, it was designed to hold a Thompson gun, stock, a 50 rnd, and 100 rnd drum. Curiously and uniquely, there is no consideration in the design to accommodate any box magazines. 

USPS Hardcase

Another hardcase was produced for the Thompson gun in the 1930’s, for the use in armoured cars transferring money to and from banks. However, these were not for the actual Thompson guns, but for carrying loaded ‘L’ drum magazines. There were two versions produced, one holding five drums and the other holding six.

1930's Armoured car Thompson 'L' Drum Carrier

In 1940, when the British War Department placed their order with Auto Ordnance Corporation for Thompson SMGs, (initially known as machine carbines in the UK), the weapons were planned to be distributed as unit weapons. At that time, unit weapons, such as Vickers machine guns and Bren light machine gun etc., were all stored in transit chests, as they were nobody's personal responsibility and were issued to whoever ‘signed for them’; together with a set of ancillaries, (magazines, cleaning rod / kit, spares), which were required for the weapons.

Home Guard training with Thompson machine carbines

Therefore, the War Department arranged contracts for the manufacture of transit chests designed specifically for the Thompson SMGs.

British Thompson Machine Carbine Transit chest

The transit chests were designed to hold, not only the gun, but also three L drums, five XX magazines, a cleaning rod and cleaning kit, and a total of 63,051 transit chests are recorded as being produced.  

The British pre-lend lease contract Thompson SMG’s, were initially shipped abroad from Britain in these chests. On one example the markings show the chest had been shipped at one time from an arsenal in Karachi onto Montreal. Some of the chests also found their way to Norway and were still in use with the Norwegian Navy, until around 1985, as were their Thompson SMG’s.  An example of the transit chest has also been found with Italian markings, used post 1943, following the Italian surrender. There are a number of Italian language manuals for the Thompson gun, as well as web carrying cases. These were issued to the Italian Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali, Gendarmes. Reali meaning Royal, hence dating prior to 1946, when the Republic was declared.

British made Thompson transit chest with Italian script.

The Canadians also made an example of this chest, without the option for the storage of drum magazines, possibly as the drums were no longer being issued, when these were produced.

Canadian manufactured Thompson transit chest without the option for the storage of drum magazines 

The life of the British and commonwealth Thompson SMG transit chests was short lived. On one document in the British Archives, the file page concludes with a note dated 26 June 1941 stating, "it is understood that these guns are now regarded as personal equipment and chests are not now required".

No one knows the number of pre-war Indiana, Alabama, Police or FBI style hardcases that were produced, but all agree the numbers were small. These cases never caught on, probably because they were not advertised. Nowhere, in all of the Thompson literature produced by the Auto Ordnance Corporation, do you see hardcases or prices mentioned, unlike the webbing carrying cases that were advertised in their catalogues.  Therefore, when originals do come up for sale, they have a premium price tag, in the thousands, not hundreds of dollars. 

Lend Lease cases discovered a few years ago in the Balkans, full of Thompson stocks, pistol and foregrips

through it ,forgot these were in it. Might be of interest to some. I lived near this site for many years and still remember the concrete

pillboxs that stood near the mill. and have seen some of the POW graves, no names just numbers on the small headstones.

This photograph is from approximately 1906–1919.

new on the forum but been collecting old german WW2 stuff since a boy. Recently acquired a couple of SS 50rf canteen tokens both dated 1939. Bit confused as one made of good quality copper the other poor light alloy. Can anyone out there clarify if they were originally made in 2 forms or any other useful info?? Both relic condition with copper one allegedly found outside berlin and poor alloy one from near Dachau.

The standard was at the time, as with most examples, quickly ripped, along with it's accessories, from the standard pole, and shows otherwise moderate age damage, with loss of the blue woven silk material in places, especially on the upper right side and along the front edge, where it was nailed to the flagpole.

The regiment was based in Torgau.

The standard is depicted under Wikipedia

Here is a WW1 made from a Brighton Pier token.

Dont have access to any war records but if anyone can provide any info on this soldier that would be greatly appreciated.

The first dogtag is a model of 1878. It still has the original black and white string and it only shows his name.

The second tag is a model 1915. It shows his name, place of birth, date of birth and his unit. It still has most of the original string, but it's not as long as it's supposed to be. It did come with a short piece of thicker string, but I'm not sure if that really belongs with it. Maybe an old repair that came loose again? 

I think it's really interesting to have these two tags together. The soldier probably kept his old tag when it was supposed to be replaced by the newer one.

If anyone has any more information about this person, I'd be glad to hear!

1935 Deutsche Volkstrachten

Kameradschaftsblock, 1944

III. Reich and Bavaria, Ludwig III.

III. Reich with Sudetenland and Kaiserreich, Württemberg, Wilhelm II. & Volksstaat Württemberg 1919
Colonies: Deutsches Postamt in China, Kiautschou, Deutsch-Neu-Guinea

Deutsches Reich, Kaiserreich and Colonies
Karolinen, Marianen, Marschall-Inseln, Samoa, Togo, Deutsch-Südwestafrika, Deutsch-Ostafrika, Kamerun

Altdeutschland and Kaiserreich: Baden, Bayern, Sachsen, Württemberg, Preußen,  Fürstlich Thurn und Taxis Postwesen (1815-1866) Hamburg (Facsimile), Hannover

Bavaria, Prinzregent Luitpold, 1911

Bavaria, 1914, Ludwig III.

  They sure did a job on the M4 Sherman (Ronson)

Guess the organisation that this monuments silhouette signifies?