The Best Finds of 2025

We are still only in February and there is at least three months until the metal detector and the shovel will taste forest again, so while the winter is going on strong outside the windows it is nice to have stacks of relics to clean and sort in a warm workshop.

The season of 2025 was very good. I spent many great days out in the woods and mountains and took home lots of nice finds and collected the best ones to show you here.

Other than fresh air, nice memories and good moods the best finds for me was the Lappland Shields and the named helmet. I had hope all summer for Erkennungsmarken, but found only one german and three or four Stalag tags, perhaps this is the season I will find a hoard of interesting gebirgsjäger EKMs.

I hope you like my finds, and I wish you a great week :)

The EKM had its details hand engraved, and I have not been able to ID the unit, so if you know it, please send me a clue :)

A handmade blank Stalag tag, and a stamped one from stalag II D. I found a couple more tags from Stalag 309, but they were in quite bad condition unfortunately.

Was Mitzi a horse, a mule or a Heereshund I wonder.

A faux leather wallet filled with coins and a button. The coins were from Greece, Soviet-Russia, Finland, Germany, Denmark and Norway. The Russian coins were silver.

Together with this third reich coinspill was a Eastern Front medal.

In a field hospital trash pit was this Iron Cross frame and black Wound Badge. Hopefully I will wind the rest of the Iron Cross this season.

A Black Wound Badge with its needle bent.

This Close Combat Clasp looks like it was the Bronze version, and it nearly perished in a trash pit fire.

War Merit Cross with Swords.

I found this denazified Finnish/German Eismeerfront Kreuz together with the following General Assault Badge.

The Allgemeines Sturmabzeichen or General Assault Badge was found together with the Eismeerfront Cross above in a Gebirgsjäger camp in the mountains.

Norwegian ULL token. ULL is an old Norse god and the skiers patron.

Silver clasp for a neckerchief.

The best belt buckle this season.

This nicely worn buckle had some of the leather belt intact.

A rusted and denazified Heer buckle.

Pocket knife, the rusted buckle, a large Luftwaffe serving spoon and a hand cut aluminum cross.

This interesting bakelite bottle stopper have Dionysus depicted.

Trench-art letter opener made from a grenades driveband.

Heer marked coffee cup and seven RAD marked fish knives came out from the same garbage ditch.

I do not often find intact pocket watches, this might be the best one I have ever found.

This pennant was a very nice find, surprisingly most of the color was hiding under rust.

The coolest bottle ever. A small medical bottle embossed with "Polizei-Krankenhaus Berlin".

The gasmask box held a secret, a k98 ammo pouch and part of a theodolite.

Under a large birch I found a hoard of NSKK transportgruppe Todt buttons made of glass.

One of the very best finds this season- The Wehrmacht vehicle license plate in an amazing condition.

In a fallen down shed I hit the jackpot! A Gebirgsjäger anorak, a Kriegsmarine plate and a woolen cap.

The best of the three helmets from this season. This one had a decal and inside it was named.

A small brass plate almost got chucked away when I noticed markings on it. It was stamped with several Lappland Shields.

Probably the rarest find this round, a Handmade/Trench-Art Lappland Shield. Very nicely made.

Lots of medical items and gaming pieces from a Field Hospital.

From the same dumping pit as the above pic.

Close combat knife, personal hygiene items and sun goggles, also from the Field Hospital dump.

In one of the many trash pits I discovered this beauty of a Finnish ring.