SS dog tag - trying to determine if it's real or fake - looking for some help

[jback3]

This dog tag is reputed to have come back with my grandfather following WWII. He was a german speaking member of the Target Force and ended up in many interesting places around Germany during the end of the war. Trying to get some feedback on this dog tag and how we might be able to authenticate it - it appears to be aluminum and is in very good condition.

[Matt L]

Well that'd be the Persönlicher Stab Reichsführer-SS - Heinrich Himmler's personal staff, but without a known example to compare it too or more significant provenance that it being reputed to have come back with your Grandfather, it's impossible to properly authenticate it. It would seem the latter isn't possible or you'd have looked into it already, and finding a 100% proven example for comparison might not be easy- I've certainly never seen one.

It looks the part well enough- high quality and so on, but it's a very atypical form of disc, having no hole at the bottom and very wide-spread neck cord holes- but that's not necessarily a problem since I could see such a significant organization having unique discs. Being Stammrollennummer '1' doesn't suggest it belonged to Wolff or anything though, it'd just be the first man recorded- sometimes it's the man making the list! Or just the first man in alphabetical order.

I don't see any indication it's obviously a fake- that's one good thing. The organization existed, I don't think there's any mistakes in the title, it's one big stamp for the whole title and it's of high quality (which makes sense), and even the number is a very nice stamp. Since the text is one single stamp, it's not possible to recognize a bad font- ironically, it may be the only way to know if it's a fake is to know the type directly- the same as if it's real.

[jback3]

Thanks for the feedback. Any ideas on ways to authenticate further?

[Paul D]

Very interesting tag , without others to compare it to 100% authentication may be difficult as Matt has pointed out.

[harryamb2]

that would be something if it can be proven.

[Matt L]

Thanks for the feedback. Any ideas on ways to authenticate further?

Unfortunately no- I, at least, have no idea where you'd look to see if you can find a 100% proven example of this 'unit'; and that is the only thing that will prove yours is real- it has to match. Often for these very rare types, the best support comes from an example being dug up by some metal detectorist, but that's as hit-and-miss as you can get really; and probably even less-likely to ever happen for this particular organization since they weren't ever in the field, until probably when various members tried to get out of Berlin in '45 or tried to make it home when the war ended, or whatever. Even if one were found, the source would have to be trustworthy- anyone can claim they dug something up, so it has to be believable that they did. It's not impossible that some collector has one, or that one has been shown in some obscure book, but then you're still left with the issue of those ones having to prove they're real- just because something's in a book doesn't mean anything. Even books on Erkennungsmarken contain fakes. So yeah, you have quite a potentially long road there to proving your disc is real. The most you might ever get though is it being fairly likely it's not a fake...

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

For what it is worth, I like the look of it.

Cheers, Ade.