Please help me identify this hat

Ber64 · 02-07-2011, 09:57 PM

Hello everybody. I'm new to this site so please forgive me if this has already been covered.

We were given this hat because my husband likes to collect military hats and I can't seem to find one the same. It is SS. It is made of a dark green wool with a black velvet hat band and has red piping. Inside is a gold-ish coloured satin?? The brown leather sweat band when lifted has a white patch on it with faded symbols and writing. Someone has also written something in ink pen on the band. I've tried everything to read the patch. The 'pictures' on it almost looks like dragons but I could be way off the mark there. The hat is supported internally by basket weave timber. The peak is a black, hard material with a small checkerboard pattern embossed on the inside. Someone in the past has tried to repair the hat with hand stitching - pretty bad job. It is perhaps a fake but if so, I think a very old one. I have only seen similar hats in grey not dark green but I read somewhere that at one stage, there was a great demand on SS uniforms during the war and they were using anything including dark green army fabrics.

I would really love it if someone could please help me identify the hat and its authenticity.

Thanks from Australia

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 02-07-2011 09:57 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-07-2011, 10:05 PM

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

Sorry but the cap and insignia are complete fakes. Note the poor detail to skull and the small head to the eagle and out of alinement swastika.

This fake was made in Eastern Europe.

The cap is supposed to be a Waffen SS Artillery Officers schirmmutze.

Cheers, Ade.

Ber64 · 02-07-2011, 10:13 PM

Thank you Ade. I thought it might be but was not sure how to establish this. Eastern Europe hey......when did they start doing that?

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-07-2011, 10:22 PM

Hi, fakers in the East started a good 20 years ago now, soon after the fall of Communisum. I strongly suspect that this one came out of Latvia: the weave of the woollen fabric is typical.

Cheers, Ade.

Ber64 · 02-07-2011, 10:37 PM

Hmmm interesting! Can you direct me to a photo of authentic eagle and skull insignias? I bet there are tens of thousands of fakes getting around. Probably a really dumb question but are they even worth anything? They went to a lot of trouble with the woven timber lol.

**Adrian Stevenson** · 02-07-2011, 10:44 PM

We have hundreds of images of authentic SS cap badges on the forum. Go the SS forum and take a look. Each maker is very slightly different. Without wishing to be rude, the ones on the cap are pretty bad fakes.

Cheers, Ade.