1938 Germany Sudetenland Anschluß Soldier's Participation Medal 0.800 Ag

I confess I have somewhat ambiguous feelings about collecting this kind of thing, especially with the swastika. I think of those who perished, with trinkets like the above given out for atrocities.

This is a medal issued on a ribbon and meant to be worn on a uniform. To slab such a medal and give it numerical grading is totally ridiculous in my opinion!

My grandma (on mom's side) had three husbands. The first was a WWII (USAAF) officer who flew combat missions in P-47D's, later P-51's and was part of the Normandy action flying combat air patrol and bomber escort most notably at St-Lo. 10 or so years after he passed on, and after marrying another WWII vet who only lived for 2 years, she married a former Luftwaffe officer who was both a HJ and member of NSDAP and flew in Junkers bombers as part of the "Condor Legion" in Nazi Germany's Spanish Civil War actions.

My first grandpa's bronze and silver stars and other such things are nicely framed and hang proudly on my walls along with those medals and flags of my other grandpa (dad's side) and my dad.

My second grandpa gave me all of his Nazi medals in 2003 after grandma died. He said they no longer meant anything to him, yet he still held onto some Nazi ideology even in his 80s, most notably his anti-Semitism. (He also stole over $50,000 of my grandma's life savings by convincing her that her end stage pancreatic cancer could be cured by spending money on herbal remedies and many other quack therapies. With part of the money, he bought his daughter a new Corvette.)

The medals included combat badges, wound badge, Iron Crosses 3rd/2nd class, the Spanish Cross with Swords (in silver), NSDAP pins and badges, HJ pins, shooting badges, all of the ribbon bars, etc. I sold them all on ebay, raised over $2500, and used it to finance my honeymoon in Las Vegas after marrying my girlfriend of two years.

Afterwards I was contacted by a gentleman in Germany who worked with some historical military group who said the collection I sold was worth more like $7500 if I had sold it all together instead of splitting it up. He asked me if I regretted selling any of it, and my reply was honest and short: not at all. He then proceeded to lecture me on their historical significance, and that a museum would have probably wanted the collection; I told him they should build more Holocaust museums instead so that they never forget what evil lay behind those medals in the first place.

By the way this is The Austrian Anschluss medal and it should be silver plated not .800 fine silver.