[David Ransome]

Hi,

I can say that a large number of plates have been replicated over the years for a variety of reasons, some deliberately fraudulent. In one case that I was involved with the maker took a copy of a photo of a plate from a well known book on the Battle of britain and created an etched plate to whiuch he added various stamped numbers, using a 1930s letter/number punch set. The plate was mounted with some small nondescript bits and pieces (and these weren't from an aircraft!) in a frame and sent to auction. When all was traced back it turned out that the person was doing plates for various things such as old cars and tractors, mainly for sale to the US and Australia, retailed via an individual from Lancashire in the UK. The actual maker has since moved to Southern Ireland (Eire) and is believed to have retired.

The same two had also introduced an extremely large number of superb etched blade Third Reich edged weapons including daggers and bayonets onto the market although this particular activity ceased c.1985. In this case genuine items with plain blades were 'enhanced'.

It was patently clear that it was no great hassle to make up bromides/masters to create these etched items. The give-aways were usually use of modern materials and paints/laquers, incorrect spelling or fonts, and general lack of age - although delicate scrunching, dunking in Coke or burial in the garden for a while apparently helps!

Having said all that regarding possible fake plates however, I can also say that I have seen photos of an He111 crash site from northern Russia where the parts were cleared fairly quickly of undergrowth and came up looking just like those of the Ju88 shown in the 'new Ju88 found' posts!

Regards,

David