Several SS Erkennungsmarken i just bought....real?

[Matt L]

No I haven't but that really doesn't mean anything- what the Ersatz formation disc looks like unfortunately says nothing about what the parent unit might look like. Here are examples from Infanterie-Regiment 236 and its replacement formation Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 236- they're very different:



Only discs from the exact same unit are valid comparators because often enough individual Kompanie discs in the same Regiment or Abteilung can be different. JR236 is a perfect example of this; here's one from the 2. Kompanie- it's not the same as the one above from the 11. Kompanie:



There are exceptions, however one must know that to be the case and the only way is to have an example of the exact type in question to prove it's the same as a related one- but then if you have an example of the exact type in question, it's irrelevant whether or not others are the same LOL

Were newbie's disc marked to the Ersatz unit and it was different than the known samples, that'd be a problem, but as it is we have no idea what the main unit's disc looked like, so we have to judge this one on it's own merits. I see nothing fishy about its features myself- it hasn't any obviously bad ones anyway.

[Glenn66]

Always a learning experience with erkennungsmarken!

[Paul D]

I've checked a few Estonian soldbuchs and have seen one where the the EK is marked 4 / SS Estnische Legion , as you say no flags with the one posted they were marked with type of desigantion i just hadn't seen one before ! As Glenn says always a enjoyable learning learning experience !!

[Matt L]

Oh great Paul- I hadn't though to ask about that because it's usually somewhat rare to find exactly the right Soldbuch, especially from what I'd have thought was an uncommon unit; that's the perfect evidence for the marking- the most I could say is it wasn't obviously wrong. It's far better to be able to say it's definitely correct

[Paul D]

Estonian Legion EKM !!