2 SS Erennungsmarken from Narva front

[Frundsberg]

Can anybody tell me are these items original? Seller claims that he found them near Narwa.

[Glenn66]

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.

[Matt L]

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.

[Frundsberg]

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.

[Glenn66]

Is the digger a forum member by any chance? (no need to name names)

[Frundsberg]

I do not belive he is forum member because he does not speak English at all.

[Matt L]

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).