Can anybody tell me are these items original? Seller claims that he found them near Narwa.
Can anybody tell me are these items original? Seller claims that he found them near Narwa.
The lower one looks to be a single stamping which is a good sign. There is no company number though, just a single battalion. I will have to defer to the superior knowledge of Matt L in this regard but for me I like the 2nd one for sure.
I don't see anything obviously bad- they're atypical, but not clearly wrong. I should ask for larger pictures though- that first one rates a closer look at the letters to be sure they're not a bad type (tough to tell from this shot). It's presumably SS-Panzergrenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon Westland- I'd think a faker would write that out so it's clear, which I suppose is good; Deutschland, Germania and others abbreviated their names to a single letter, so it's not inconceivable Westland did too- especially considering how crowded the disc is. The 'Waffen-SS' is in an odd place, but not a 'wrong' one, and I don't see any evidence of it being a recent stamp of an old blank, or any such thing. The age sure looks realistic- noboby's going to easily fake a temperature crack like that I should think.
Glenn's right about the second one- it's a nice stamp, but the lack of a Kompanie number is odd. It's also not the exact unit title listed in most references- they call it 'SS-Panzergrenadier-Ausbildungs- und Ersatz-Bataillon 11'; however a list of SS officers I found notes that SS-Sturmbannführer Willi Schweitzer was "Kdr. SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Ersatz-Bataillon 11 (Graz)" so perhaps it was just an 'Ersatz' unit for a time before it was designated 'Ausbildungs- und Ersatz'. The disc looks real enough. Perhaps this particular unit used a central roll and that accounts for the lack of a Kompanie number. It might also explain why the roll number is so high if the title of the unit was changed before long.
Ohhhhh- pillage then burn...
Thanks a lot! This digger was (and still is) a reliable seller but there are so many fakes in the market. As I understand belt buckle is also original. He wants to sell it as one lot.
Is the digger a forum member by any chance? (no need to name names)
I do not belive he is forum member because he does not speak English at all.
Oh well good- if he's reliable and he dug these up himself, then there's no reason to doubt their authenticity; it's always good to check of course, but with nothing clearly wrong with them and the source being good, that'd certainly make me feel secure were I in your place. I bought many pieces that way myself- direct from the digger- and that always made up for details that seemed a little odd or otherwise not quite what would be expected (but aren't obviously very wrong).
Ohhhhh- pillage then burn...
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