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Mark B. Ledenbach's vintage Halloween collectibles blog.

Wonderful German 1941 Hallowe'en Decorations Graphic Box

This is a superb box! These boxes are quite collectible for a number of reasons, not the least of which is they are rare AND serve as good references as to which diecuts were sold as sets. However, the boxed set was not assembled and exported in 1941. The Germans were two years into the Second World War at that time and were not exporting paper goods. In fact, they dramatically ramped down their exports of such items in 1935 as the leaders of the Third Reich bent the economy to begin preparing for armed conflict. If you look at the photo showing the stamped date, the way to read it is clear: Sep 24 1330, with 1330 referring to some inventory number assigned somewhere along the way. The "1" looks in size and shape to correspond to the "330," definitely not to the other two digits, "2" and "4."