Stabskp. SS Pol Div.

[rickyodicky]

Hi Matt,
Love your threads and have tried to learn something new with every posting. This is mine and I have a "lifetime guarantee" on it's authenticity. What think ye? I don't see anything to ring the warning bells aside from it being an SS tag. Thanks for your interest. rick

[Matt L]

Hi Rick- glad you find my ranting useful LOL

I'm afraid I don't have anything good to say about this one at all- unfortunately, I can't say anything bad absolutely for sure either, but I'm extremely doubtful it's real.

Any SS disc is suspect certainly, but especially those with sans-serif, all capital lettering- such is exceedingly rare among real Erkennungsmarken and extremely common among fakes- especially this squat form. Quite a few images of definite fakes I have are so close to your letters as to make me think they're likely the same- unfortunately, my images are taken from auction sites, etc. so are not always of the best quality and size. One is also stuck with the letters present for comparison, so if the truly distinctive ones aren't on both the less-distinctive ones have to do- which makes the case less easily demonstrated and that's the case here.

The use of the abbreviation 'Stabskp' is also odd- usually unit commands are just 'Stab'; 'Stabskp' isn't wrong per se, but it's very uncommon.

It's also problematic that the Division was originally not part of the SS- they were transferred in early 1942, so it would have to be the case that the command personnel traded in their original discs for these SS ones- which is not unreasonable, but it'd be necessary to prove it. The man had to be already serving because field unit-marked discs issued during the war were replacements for lost ones and there's no way 150 men in a single Kompanie needed new discs.

I wonder too about the lack of a 'Waffen-SS' mark- to be sure not every single unit used them, but the majority did and it'd surprise me if a Division wouldn't.

Granted none of these issues is demonstrably fatal, however it's a lot to explain away and given the disc's nature- an SS-Division COMMAND?! That's an incredibly rare bird if real and thus warrants all the scrutiny possible I'd say and should stand up well to be accepted- and I dont' think this one does. If you're 'lifetime authenticy guarantee' includes returns for it being suspected a fake (which would surprise me), I'd consider it- unless all the issues I've found can indeed be explained...

[rickyodicky]

Thanks Matt, and I'm glad I got your wheels turning on this one. I'll likely trade this in with the gentleman I purchased it from. Again thanks, you're the best. rick

[Matt L]

I wish the news would've been better and that it were more of a concrete evaluation, but I definitely think it's better to have something that's not so questionable; it's sure good that you aren't just stuck with it

[militarymania]

you got luck there by being able to send it back,,,way back...

[Matt L]

LOL Yeah. Two things anyone should bear in mind when buying militaria these days (sadly): 1) it's best to show good photos of a piece around before buying if possible, to get opinions and potentially avoid a problem altogether, and 2) always get a guarantee of authenticity involving refund or trade if you can't have fellows have a look first (such as buying at a show).

[Dimas]

That is a bad one, wrong lettering and looks like the tag too

[Matt L]

Yeah, I wondered about the disc too- the Trennschlitzen (3 slits) don't look entirely aligned; the one on the left looks a bit angled and higher than the other two. It could be an illusion in the photo but if they are indeed not straight, that's another problem to be sure.