German Knife Real or Fake??

[richg]

My buddy owed me $30 bucks so instead of giving me the money he gave this german knife, now I see these things all over the place so how do you tell if these things are real? It looks like all the other ones I seen, however there is no marking on the blade, I thought the blades were all marked. The only mark I see is on the fob type thing which has an eagle on it and underneath it has the letters SPQR. It is obviously missing a piece that gets screwed into the knife handle but if its real I should be able to find a replacement I think, if its fake I wont even worry about it. Any clues?? Thanks for the help!!

[ivan salis]

first of all its not german but rather italian * its a model 1937 dress dagger --- whats missing is a bundle of wood with a ax device (fascine) -- it looks like whats on the back of a us mercury dime * it clearly had a screw that attached to the device thru the handle----SPRQ -roman (italian) -- its on the top of the cross over christ head on many catholic crosses -- its the roman rulers symbolic marking.

if real you made out nicely as it can be big bucks (and finding out for sure where he got it from might nor be a bad ideal) -- if not well take what you can get as "payment" and do not loan anymore cash to em.

[richg]

It was in his uncle's house who was a collector of all kinds of things, I know the uncle and I would have to say that it is probably the real thing. Thanks for all the info, its been a big help!!!

[cuzcosquirrel]

The Fascismo insignia may have been defaced intentionally for reuse, or just to defascist it. The black plastic handles were used by ncos and lower grade officers below the rank of captain I beleive. The handles were white for higher ranks.

One of these was featured in an antique show on television last year. it had supposedly belonged to Mussolini and was given to a US Army officer by the inhabitants of a town in Italy. It had the black handle and the story was debunked.

[OldSowBreath]

Just from memory - the "SPQR" was on a lot of Roman buildings, statues, etc. I think in Latin it stood for "The Senate and Public Rule." or something similar.

[nddfw]

SPQR is short for the Latin phrase Senātus Populusque Rōmānus or The Senate and People of Rome.

Dan