Some random tags?!

[Elnar]

Elnar,

No it is a zinc disc and a combination of oxidisation and my poor camera skills, it is dark grey in colour.

Jock

That was fast, thanks. I thought it was a kind of protection /e.g. shining in camouflage/ Btw, your collection are very nice.

[Matt L]

That was actually once suggested by an 'author'- that many Erkennungsmarken were painted black for 'camouflage'- but it's not true in the least. One might encounter corroded discs having been painted for sale to make them more appealing (one if mine was) although this may have been an old thing to do.

Nice collection you have there Jock- all original and some neat variants.

Oh and because I expect you're curious, the one LW coded disc you have there, 55504, was the General-Kommando II. Fliegerkorps. Just because it's Stammrollennummer is '1' doesn't mean it belonged to the overall commander though- just the first person on the roll. If that were alphabetical, it could be just a Flieger clerk...

[jock auld]

That was actually once suggested by an 'author'- that many Erkennungsmarken were painted black for 'camouflage'- but it's not true in the least. One might encounter corroded discs having been painted for sale to make them more appealing (one if mine was) although this may have been an old thing to do.

Nice collection you have there Jock- all original and some neat variants.

Oh and because I expect you're curious, the one Luftwaffe coded disc you have there, 55504, was the General-Kommando II. Fliegerkorps. Just because it's Stammrollennummer is '1' doesn't mean it belonged to the overall commander though- just the first person on the roll. If that were alphabetical, it could be just a Flieger clerk...

Matt,

The zinc SS was posted on here about 6/7 months ago and was deemed fake?

The air crew disc, it never crossed my mind that was the stamm roll number, the reverse is stamped Blood group A.

I will go through them again as there are a few stamped on both sides, one side being struck through (recyled?).

Jock

[Matt L]

Whoops, missed that one out there- yeah, it's bad. So correct my statement to read "almost all original with some neat variants"

Yup, there are only three key pieces of information on a disc nominally- unit, roster number, and blood group; on a Luftwaffe coded disc, the unit is a 5- or 6-digit number so the smaller number is always the roster number. A LOT of people jump to the erroneous conclusion that number '1' must be the commander, so I just figured I'd preempt the question were it to come to your mind too

And yes, it does seem as if sometimes discs were re-used- I have a couple myself with markings on both sides; it wasn't normal practice by any means though and must represent special circumstances. That is save for the case of the 'other' marking being the 'Deutsche Reichsheer', since it seems a stock of so-marked blanks existed and were used by various units during the war- they do not necessarily represent someone who was in the Reichsheer at first and later went to the Wehrmacht- most of the time I've seen them, the discs are just old stock since they have no Stammrollennummer on the Reichsheer side.