Ss helmet

[Samowen]

Hello all
I was wondering if someone here would have any idea if the helmet in the attached pictures is genuine?
Many thanks
Sam

[helmet2id]

Sorry to be bearer of bad news but the decal is a one look fake. Jim G.

[Samowen]

Hi jim
Thanks for the reply, not bad news as I haven’t purchased it at this point thankfully!

Is there anything you could tell me as to why the decal is fake? I’m trying to learn as much as possible
Thanks

[MedicalAmmunitionCrate]

Looks a bit too rounded in my eyes.. Yellow feels artificial (It's just my gut feeling), and it seems someone focused on chipping and aging it compared to other parts of the helmet. That's just from my amateur observations. Jim will probably be able to tell you more specifically.

[MAP]

This is a rear stamped (later war) Q (Quist) made helmet.

As Jim notes, the decal is a one look fake.

Take a look at a true Q SS decal (see link below) and compare to yours. Also look at the ET decals on this link as well (as you will understand when I explain further down). Look closely at the details between the original Q and ET decals and it becomes very apparent.

SS Decals – German Helmet Vault

Ill lay just a few out for you...

1) Red: The SS rune itself is of the incorrect style. This is clearly not a Quist SS decal. In fact it is an ET "style"
2) Green: Look at the break (or lack there of) of the black line where it begins to curve. It should be must more pronounced
3) Yellow: This is what we call the "round bottom" fake. While Q decals have a very pronounced point, even ET's which are less pronounced are still pointed.



So. Conclusion.....

1) Not a Q decal. All Q helmets should ONLY have a Q style decal (with the exception of some Q helmets around 1939 having "Pocher" decals - but this isn't a Pocher either
2) Even if someone applied an original ET style decal post war to a helmet, this is not the case here because this is a fake ET decal


I will say. The $25 you just spent in membership, save your thousands of $$$.

[PotatoDigger]

Yeah, not liking it either, as for the helmet itself I think as this is a late war Q helmet it shouldn't have a decal at all to begin with, I think they stopped applying decals around lot no. DN350-ish
Luis

[MAP]

Yeah, not liking it either, as for the helmet itself I think as this is a late war Q helmet it shouldn't have a decal at all to begin with, I think they stopped applying decals around lot no. DN350-ish
Luis

Good point Luis, but there are SS and Police with decals post the OP's helmet lot number.

[HoundsTooth]

I agree with everything said above, which has been explained very well.
As soon as I saw the decal I scrolled down expecting to see a rear marked Quist.
(Quist produced M40 helmets beyond the August 1943 decal drop so they are 'ripe' for fakers to exploit)
It was the 'kiss of death' to the already bad decal.
Nick

[Samowen]

Hi Map and co
Thank you all for your advice and map thank you very much for taking the time to go into some detail that is really helpful for me and much appreciated!
25$ certainly well spent indeed!
Thank you
Sam

[PotatoDigger]

Good point Luis, but there are SS and Police with decals post the OP's helmet lot number.

Polizei always had both decals applied unlike SS,Heer,KM and LW if I'm correct, so I wouldn't say that those really count, as for SS I am not sure what to make of that tbvh.
I've seen that there are even DD Heer and SS Q M40s listed with such a high lot number in there so I'd take it with a teaspoon of salt.
(Look at lot No. DN496 and DN513)
Luis