Please help identify 2 Erkennungsmarken - ID disks.

[tonygill]

Hi guys.

Could anybody tell me the history of these two disks & if the artillery disk was issued, as it dose not have a blood group number.

Thanks, tony.

[Matt L]

Hi Tony,

Well you can look up Infanterie-Ersatz-Bataillon 208 on the Lexikon der Wehrmacht site linked to in the sticky at the top of the forum list- that has all that's known about the unit and probably the field units with which it was formally associated. No blood group on the Artillerie disc isn't necessarily weird since they only started marking discs in mid-1941, and being a field unit disc with a low roll number, it would seem that this disc is supposed to have been an original issue- just before or right as the war began. Usually such discs were marked in time, but only if the soldier were still serving- a man could be wounded and discharged, be sent to a different unit and given a new disc (not common but did happen), or something else that prevented the marking. However, I'm not so sure that disc is real- the lettering is simple and the 'R' especially is extremely close to a typical fake type:



In fact, it's identical:



So it's a fake- don't buy it if you're considering it and return it if you have just bought it...

Sans-serif, capital lettering should always be a red flag- especially if it's narrow and tall like this. The disc also looks a bit weird in that the lettering is a more brownish colour than the rest- that might be dirt in the lettering while the rest of the disc is more clean (if all you have is the photo), but it could also be a faker's way of disguising newly-stamped lettering on an old disc. Patination should always be relatively even, and the little white crystalline deposits on zinc discs should appear within the letters here and there as well. Something like this where there's a strange difference in just the lettering ought to be a red flag as well.

[tonygill]

thanks for your help mat.
thats saved me a few pounds.

[Matt L]

OH excellent- I always cringe when someone shows a fake, thinking they probably just bought it and want to know more; it's a relief when I hear it was just under consideration

Yes, these regular army fakes aren't common, but they do exist- luckily the fakers are just as bad at them as anything else usually.

[tonygill]

thanks matt.