Allgemeine-SS EM/NCO Schirmütze: FAKE !

[Friedrich-Berthold]

It is also true that the Gehirnbremse can be replaced with too large an example, or, what is likely with fakes, that the faker put the buttons that hold said thing in the wrong place, so that they never fit properly. The latter is strong evidence of caps made by unskilled hands.
There are other things wrong with the piece recently added to this thread, but such is all I wish to divulge here and in this medium.

Happy hats in a world of madness.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Pfui. I think this kind of thing has been around for awhile, actually. Not a real threat to the skilled analyst, but surely a trap for the amateur.

[stonemint]

Newer collectors: This is a 100% REALClemens Wagner SS Officer's Visor. Look, learn, and memorize if need be:

[stonemint]

The whole deal:

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here is a variation of the same. The piece above shows more or less the pattern ca. 1937 or so (maybe 1936...) but these here are ca. 1938-9, perhaps as late as 1940 or even 1941. These caps came with either the matte badges or the Neusilber variant. They are not nearly as well made as earlier caps of this firm, actually. The SS underwent a large expansion in 1938, not the least because of Nazi conquests, and many of these caps survive likely because the use of the black uniform was then greatly curtailed with the start of the war.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

The whole deal:

This cap came from a senior collection recently broken up, and has been sold across the water. It has its whole sweat diamond, which is the exception in Clemens Wagner caps.....as if any same person could possibly care. These caps were often made by either the Wagner firm in Lower Saxony or the Mueller firm in Bavaria.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

A Mueller cap of similar traits. The differences are miniscule, and I still have no idea why anyone cares who made what. The earlier caps were better made, were less standardized and have more character, even if they lack all the marks.

Also, these digital pictures are not really the Rosetta stone for a collector who must spend a large sum, as there is no substitute for the actual examination and handling over time of authentic regalia.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

This volume makes plain that, in some instances, the black cap was worn into the year 1944.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

We are also under no obligation here to provide a tutorial to fakers with full disclosure of all salient details. We should really resist such a temptation, especially in the interests of grand standing.

[Friedrich-Berthold]

Here, for instance, is a well made fake. Based on my images alone, many would fall prey to such an object. My goal is not to promote paranoia, but this fake was far better made than the old Atwood caps, which some here regard as the piece de resistance of fakery.

My goal is to post real material, not to provide a chamber of horrors of fakes.