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The final component of an item's rarity, as with all collectible things, is its provenance. This comes in two forms. For example, a random helmet isn't going to be worth that much - they're pretty common. A helmet claimed to have been found on an important and historic battlefield (with proof) is probably worth somewhat more. A helmet worn by someone famous on that battlefield is going to be worth even more. Just like art pieces owned by famous people or that were publicized in some ways tend to be worth more, military commemorative items like the ones you see...

The second part of an item's rarity, and in this case probably the most eye-catching one, is the decoration on the commemorative item.

Now it's probably best to start with the most basic - the flags and star theme. It's pretty clear that on their own, the flags and star are not rare at all - there are lots, and lots, and lots of cups with a pair of flags and a star (or sometimes just a pair of flags). However, not all flags are created equal. Consider, for example, this:

And contrast it with this:

The first element of an item's rarity has to be the material with which it's made. Quite simply, it's the stuff that the cup is made of, and roughly speaking, from rarest to least rare, I'd put them in the following order:

Aluminium, Bakelite, Silver, Silver alloy, Tin, Pewter, Metal, Wood, Porcelain

It's easy to forget now with aluminium (aluminum) being so common, but back in the day it was an expensive metal. It eventually became cheaper when Charles M. Hall discovered a new process that made it a lot easier to produce aluminium, but that took some time and...

Imagine a cup like this: A pure silver sake cup, decorated with a hand-carved image of the aircraft carrier Akagi with planes taking off and its distinctive funnels visible. The back of the cup has the words "Congratulations on Victory" "December 8th, Showa 16th Year" and the name of the person receiving the cup "Admiral Nagumo Chuichi". Even better, it comes with an original wooden box, and on the inside of the lid has a beautiful hand written message, maybe something quoting Admiral Togo, and signed by, say, Hideki Tojo (because Yamamoto probably wouldn't have called it a victory so...

Today a customer asked me about telling items apart when there's no explicit attribution to a unit. Specifically, the question was about items with horses on them with no unit name - how do you know if this was an item for a transport unit or a cavalry unit? They both use horses as a theme in their decoration. What to do?

This got me to think about what I've learned about the process of production for these cups after having looked at and handled thousands of these. As I mentioned in my last post, porcelain items were actually the most...