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Vietnam Zippo


fallschirmjager
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fallschirmjager

Picked up this Zippo for £18. Looking at the Zippo sites it seems to date about 1955/1956. This engraving has been quoted as found on these lighters apparently! Any opinions on authenticity and possible unit! I think Kontum is mis-spelt! Apologies for the poor pictures!

 

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That bottom does not give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm pretty sure for that date range the bottom should look like this. I really don't like the fact that "Bradford" is canted the way it is. I would like to see photos of the inside if possible including the bottom where the fill hole is.

 

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Looking through my little Zippo book, I'd say its a fake.

 

My 1958 dated USMC Zippo for comparison.

 

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The flash is a little strong, but oldfireguy has a photo of the bottom of a Zippo with the same date.

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without a shadow of a doubt a fake piece made for the tourist trade in Vietnam

 

That's what I thought, recently a seller in the US had a TON of these lighters, he was getting over $100 a pop for a lot of them.

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If I can attach a couple of photos I'll add images of a lighter I bought and carried in Vietnam in 1970.

 

I think you will find with personal lighters carried by men in Vietnam that most of them will be engraved. Vietnamese shops did this as a regular thing. Guys would want their unit designation and usually initials of the owner. The lighter was about the only personal equipment a guy in the field had in a day when just about everybody smoked. He also took it with him if he went from one unit to another when he was given a change in assignment during Nixon's reduction of new forces being sent to Vietnam. It was a case of the 1st Division went home but the troops went to the 1st Cav, the 9th and the 101st. In my case the last Brigade of the 9th went home and I spent my last three months with the 101st.

 

Note the engraving of the 9th information doesn't match the engraving for the 101st. That's because the 101st information was added at a later date in another Vietnamese shop.

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Couldn't attach this to the above post. The dates were added later, after the information on the lid. The engraving is slightly larger and goes slightly deeper on the addition of dates.

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One more.

 

 

Hi, 9 Alpha, Thankyou for sharing your cherished in-country engraved Zippo with us! can you remember what type of shop it was that engraved it??Bar, club, Barber, Camera shop, ect!

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I saw loads of those lighters when I was in Saigon last October... They were being sold for 40-70 Dong, depending on which store was selling them.

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I saw loads of those lighters when I was in Saigon last October... They were being sold for 40-70 Dong, depending on which store was selling them.

 

 

Do you think they were like the bogus dog tags? I'd bet they were.

 

Jack_Frost.... I can't remember exactly where I got that lighter but it was about January of 1970 in the upper Mekong Delta. But i'm pretty sure it was in a PX at Tan An. I think the first engraving might have been at one of those Vietnanese run shops on big base camps that sold sundry stuff to GI's. But....can't remember exactly. The second time it was at one of those kind of shops at Phu Bai...I think.

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Yes, probably bogus. There were soooo many. They were being sold for 70 Dong at the War Remnants Museum and 40 Dong (average) everywhere else, with different insignias and engravings.

 

ARVN Ranger helmets as well... I saw several at the Dan Sinh Market being sold for USD 50.00.

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Hi 9 Alpha, Thankyou for the info, the blank space on your Zippo, did you have in mind to get it engraved in Vietnam?, maybe you didn't get around to it, or perhaps felt nothing more needed to be added! Whatever the story please share.

 

Regards

 

JF

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