My belief is that if a bayonet, or any other militaria (1911A1s for example), is made as a collectable commerative it will probably never be worth much or as much as a military piece made exclusively for military personnel and distribution. The less made for military issue, the more valuable. I own approximately 20 M9 and not a one is a commerative, nor will I ever own one.

Also the military issue items, because they are military issue items, are probably harder to find in good to excellent condition than commerative even though hundreds or even thousands more were manufactured than commeratives. So just because 5000 USMC Buck M9's were made, that doesn't nessarily mean that there are 4500 more out there than the Ontario USMC commeratives.

I feel the same, though for me the investment potential is not one i subscribe too, no kids and single so dont care how much my colelction is worth - may be different when i retire. I collect bayonets in general, if i start colelcting one model "seriously" i try to get every version, variation and type of the there is, from the original first through every re incarnation and modfication. I dont think a collection of any model would be complete if it didnt include, repro's fakes, commercial copies etc. Of course in the M9 case this is hard since there is a huge commercial aspect that brings new versiosn out on a regular basis (M11A1 anyone). The problem with this is that it can force prices up as you strive to get ones you dont have, be it hollow ground, Australian, Dutch, shallow fuller etc. It is what collecting i all about, and thnkfully ther is always a new need coming up.

Got to agree there or my BCN M9 woudl be worth a fortune, it is unlikley that commemeratives will rise markedly in value, but as i said it isnt why i collect, their value will be down to people like me and Bill who try to collect every variation we can, Civilian blades have never been worth as much as Military issue, with some small excpetions with specially enscribed German and British blades or ones dedicated to a person or position. But to each their own.....:nanabang:

Hello everyone. I found your website when I was searching for "Commemorative M9 Bayonet" on Google.

I am a former Marine and did a tour in Iraq back in 2004-05. While I was there, a good friend of mine sent me an Ontario M9 Commemorative Bayonet. I kept it in the box and it is in 100% perfect condition. I don't think there are many other of these M9's that have actually been in Iraq.

It is the Operation Iraqi Freedom Knife with "NO OUTCOME BUT VICTORY" stamped on it. It is the MARINE version and there was only 500 of them made. It has "1 of 500" stamped on it, but I do not think this is the actual #1 knife. There is a "430" imprinted on the paper sheath, but I have seen the same "430" on another knife on the internet. So, this is not knife #430 either.

I am wondering if any of you can help me out. I am trying to figure out what it's worth. Should I hang on to it or sell it?

Thanks! - Rob

It is impolite to sell a present...

Someone ought to find out if Ontario retained or destroyed the stamping dies for their USMC & US Army commemorative bayonets. If they have done so, then it is likely there will be no more produced. However if not... who knows. As for what is "collectible" in M9 bayonets, it depends on what your aim is. When I started out, my intention was to acquire military contract variants, as produced by Phrobis/BUCK. But then, I found many of the Phrobis & BUCK commercial patterns also drew my interest, so decided to include them. Later I began to seek out LanCay military contract variants as well, and/or any of the color patterns utilized by military or para-military organizations (such as the case with limited numbers of the "rescue orange" Lan-Cay M9s). So far, I have avoided being drawn into the bottomless pit of Lan-Cay multi-colored commercial M9s, but I also thought the same about Phrobis commemoratives until I ended up with some...