TKS, Stab

[Gazal Al Shaqab]

Hello everyone,
Can someone express his opinion about this one?
It does not belong to me, I just saw it on a Polish auction site, and I ask for historic purpose, since here are great connaisseurs having lots of knowledge in the subject.
I cut the low right corner in order not to expose the seller nick-name without his permission.

Thanks in advance for any opinion.

[Matt L]

Well Gazal, I see a few problems right away- first being the most obvious, the neck cord holes are very oddly-placed; I've seen some late war Volkssturm discs like that but this is purporting to be a very early disc, so that doesn't make sense. And the slit on the right (in the photo), looks a little higher than the other two, which also is something generally seen only on fakes. I'll be the font matches a known fake one too- I'll have to check some though; you might try looking at the fake fonts thread to see if you can match any letters...

[Gazal Al Shaqab]

Thank you, Matt, for your answer, interesting and consistant as always.
Now that you pointed it, I see it clearly too: the upper holes are a way too wide spread.

As for the fonts - I didn't even try checking, since as I understand, that kind of letters (all sans-serif capitals) are the most known for being used by fakers (I think I read it on this forum).

Besides, I think I saw too somewhere on this forum another TK Stab EKM (or maybe it was somewhere else, I am not quite sure) and the "SS-TOTENKOPFSTANDARTE" line seemed to be stamped with a single tool (the whole line), which is I understand more difficult to get (or to manufacture) than just a bunch of letters.

[Matt L]

This fake font "FRUNDSBERG" is very close- unfortunately, with some photos taken at angles it's not necessarily so easy to match things exactly, but to me the similarity is too much to ever consider that Totenkopf is real without some serious proof.

[Matt L]

Indeed I say that about sans-serif capitals with straight sides a lot, so you probably did read it here

And you're quite right about most if not all SS-TOTENKOPFSTANDARTE discs being made with a single stamp for the whole text- that was the next thing I was going to check and indeed all the images of originals I have are made that way. It can't be said for certain that none were ever, ever made with individual stamps- sometimes individual Kompanies had unique discs- so it's not impossible that the Stab/6 had something different than the rest of the unit, but it's unlikely and there'd again have to be proof of it. All that together really makes it most likely this example is bad.

[Gazal Al Shaqab]

I agree, Matt, thank you !
I found this picture (maybe it is from this forum or somewhere else, but mostly form here).
It looks more real with its single-stamp.

[ObKrieger]

As-salam wa alaykum.

Matt knows his stuff, so I really can't add anything else. However be very very wary when searching for these on auction sites, especially from Eastern Europe.

Best regards,
Mo

[Matt L]

Ah, perfect- well there you go then, the real thing is definitely as the others known and the one you asked about is clearly a bad fake LOL

[SteveR]

As-salam wa alaykum.

Matt knows his stuff, so I really can't add anything else. However be very very wary when searching for these on auction sites, especially from Eastern Europe.

Best regards,
Mo

Damn Mo. You Utah mormons are always showin off your language skills.

[Gazal Al Shaqab]

wa-ʻaláykum as-salām, ObKrieger!

(and everybody!)

I know that Matt knows his stuff, as you say, since I spent several hours (and it is not finished) reading the forum, even the ancient threads, and taking notes in a small note-book. So, even if it was said already many times, THANKS Matt and others (because there are others) sharing knowledge (and pictures of their collections) here: this forum is like a kind of gold mine for a beginner in collecting this delicate and massively faked stuff (Erkennungsmarken).

And thanks for Your warning, ObKrieger, careful I am (even if it doesn't mean I will never be fooled) and I keep learning

I will certainly submit other pieces of metal for opinions here, since people here write interesting things (and I read other forums where people write often "It is fake because I say so"… It seems different here).

Friendly greetings,
GaS