in the mid 80s I was working as a carpenter and we had a stonemason who was born in Berlin. He was 14 when the war ended and we talked about it a little. One Monday he mentioned that he had gone to a gunshow trying to find a Hitler Youth knife like he had when he was a kid. He said he refused to pay the going rate because in his opinion most were made after the war.

He explained that his first post war job was at a military metals factory. After the war the GIs would pay good prices, or more importantly trade food, for Nazi souvenirs. So they fired up the machines that made military medals for the Third Reich and made medals and other stuff for the GIs for as long as the raw material held out.

Medals made prior to May 7th are WW2 production and those made after May 7th are not. They were made on the same machines, often by the same people. So how do you know the difference? I imagine the knife makers were doing the same thing.