re: WW2 medals and patches

Holy shite. That Iron Cross is probably worth a whole lot of $$$. And the rest of the German badges and metals are also collectable. Pretty much anything with a swastika on it made in Germany from the 1920s - 1945 is worth money. But that Iron Cross tops them all even though is predates the Nazis.

The other stuff is collectable as well but not near as valuable as the German stuff. You've got some Glider Infantry patches, CIB, and the 29th Infantry Patch (the yong-yang patch) that might be worth some. The occupation notes might bring in a little interest as well.

Very nice. Get over the whole "oh no I'm looking up nazi stuff" thing going on in your head. That stuff is all over Europe and isn't taboo. It's just history and major part of what shaped our world

Thanks for the info guys

Hoping to get some more from the weekday crew

The item on the far right of this photo is a 6-sided dice typically used in games of chance. The white depressions on the faces are called pips.

Great find, and awesome that it's family. I have a similar collection from an old briefcase I found in an elderly widow's backyard shed. Her family had moved her out and invited all us neighbors in to help empty the house and take anything we might want. I found the old dusty suitcase behind tons of cobwebs--it obviously hadn't been opened in years and was like something out of a movie. It was full of US Army patches, books, pamphlets, along with tons of V-Mail. Also mint-condition unopened postcards from war-time London, Paris, etc. Also Nazi paraphernalia including an Iron Cross, Anti-aircraft badges, Wound badges (their version of the Purple Heart), SS shoulder insignias and other stuff.

I brought it back to the house, showed it to the realtor (who was family) and offered it back. Her words? "Honey, if you found something valuable, congratulations. I gave that family months to come get stuff out of this house and they don't care".

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That's some neat stuff man, thanks for sharing. When you get it looked at give us an update

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Thats some nice stuff man, love the old airborne patches. Get it professionally appraised.

From a Coin Collecting standpoint, probably nothing of real Numismatic value here. Sentimental value makes them worth keeping.
Mostly late Nazi German Third Reich minor coinage (garbage metal & rarity) along with some similar non-valuable coins from Belgium.

The only thing that makes any of them valuable is a couple of them have some silver in them.

A few randoms, amongst them are
Soviet Union (CCCP on it)
Netherlands
France
A large British Copper Penny
An US steel penny

And the Owlie of the group, a stray Mexican coin

In the last pic, the brass lapel badge with crossed swords is US Army Cavalry and the blue badge with rifle and silver wreath is a US Army Combat Infantryman's Badge.

US insignia include airborne and glider infantry patches, 29th Infantry Division, postwar constabulary, CIB and EIB. The gold bars are overseas bars, each one representing six months. Ribbons are Good Conduct, and maybe European Campaign medal, too damaged to tell.

Bottom picture: Luftschutz were civilian air raid wardens.

Stahlhelm (literally, "steel helmet") was a WWI veterans' organization that also had a paramilitary element which took part in the postwar unrest in Germany. It was right wing, but not Nazi, and kept its distance from the Nazi Party. After Hitler came to power, it was dissolved, with its members being absorbed into the SA.

Can't see the other ones well enough, but some of them look like the kind of awards handed out to civilian workers for meeting production quotas, etc.

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we were in Ulm

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Ulm Minster (finished in 1890 @ 530 feet tall)

(was the 4th tallest structure in the world for a short while)