eBay: Rare Vintage Hawaiian Surfer medal,Duke Kahanamoku NM

Very rare and a great piece to wear or put in your Hawaiian, Tiki or surf collection.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=290217819613&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=019

Thanks for interest looking ,
Trader Bill

That is the German Iron Cross medal, given out in WWI and WWII:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/medals/germany/prussia_ic.php

I can only fathom that it was used as an icon of cool among surfers just as it was popular among bikers. American G.I.s brought these back in droves as WWII victory souvenirs from Germany, and some of these disenfranchised WWII veterans who could not find a way back into normalcy actually formed the first biker gangs a la "The Wild Bunch".

You are exact correct amundo on that.The 1914 I believe has some significance
of a year that Duke Kahanamoku won a race or special medal fr Olympics.I will
have to do some more research on that date.I have this medal in about seven
different variations.The maltese cross was a symbol of rebel against common
society and that they were different.

On 2008-03-29 21:46, 1961surf wrote:
The 1914 I believe has some significance
of a year that Duke Kahanamoku won a race or special medal fr Olympics.

It may be the date on the Duke medal refers to a relevant date in his life, but the 1914 date was also on the World War 1 iteration of the Iron Cross.

The date on Iron Crosses refers to the iteration date of the medal (not date it was awarded to a recipient), and there have been 4 dates: 1813 (Napolenoic Wars), 1870 (Franco-Prussian War), 1914 (WW1), and 1939 (WW2).

The 'W' in the original Iron Cross refered to the Emperor's initial (Wilhelm). The crown at top is the Hohenzollern crown. The oak leaves were included in the original two iterations of the medal, but replaced with the 'W' in WW1, and a swastika in WW2. The West German government issued a denazified version of the Iron Cross in 1957, which reinstated the oak leaves in place of the swastika on the 1939 medal.

The Tikipedia
www.tikipedia.com

[ Edited by: tikipedia 2008-03-30 08:36 ]

Thank you for that complete info. I now hear that there was indeed a part of early surf culture that consisted of young guys returning from WWII and just living the surfing/beachcomber life, similar to the bikers living "on the the road". I love the way Americans just take a symbol from another culture and re-imbue it with their own meaning, care free of its original "heaviness". I am sure some knew of the origin, but most must have taken the Duke Kahanamoku info for a fact.

tikipedia-This is good information seeing as how I have
quite of few of these in different variations I have collected.
I am glad you have passsed this info on so we can all learn and
benefit from it.
Thanks again,
Trader Bill