Thank you very much!
Your dealer doubts my bona fides. He can well do so. Others here will support his doubts.by Tdognc
Somedays I doubt my sanity for engaging what is, at some level, an impossible task, which is the every ten
minutes of being asked to explain my method of assessing a fake from an authentic item.
There are others here who spend more time than I, but whether their success and their pedagogy is really effective,
some doubt should adhere because as soon as a post is made to explain what is fake, two new posts appear with the
question: "is it real?"
As I wrote earlier, I listened on NPR to this Professor Kahnemann explain how people make decisions, which is a very interesting
kind of task, and about which I am ill-equipped other than as a historian. He has mean things to say about intuition as a process, but I am sure he is right, even if I do not agree with him.
I am also a follower of Clausewitz in idea and deed, and he has a lot to say about it all, too. I take my cues from him.
Someone must have an algorithm to tell the fake from the real SS cap badge, but what I do (Takt des Urteils) is the sum of years of experience and the ownership of the things, themselves, though I hardly own all the examples of these badges.
I only collect those that fit more or less on black and grey peaked caps of the era 1932-1942...and that's not much.
But it is complicated because the known knowns and the unknown unknowns are all out of whack.
What I try to do is include photos of real items. I do not swerve towards packing this place with fakes or "questionable" items and
then scurrying back into my hole to let you sort it out, despite what some write here.
I gave you actual examples of what I think is authentic.
But there is no algorithm, and the evidence is contradictory.
If all of this is a source of cognitive dissonance, then the task is beyond a lot of persons who are not willing to do the hard work.
It is also why I quit in disgust recently and went finally and wholly and completely to hell.
Last edited by Friedrich-Berthold; 01-27-2018 at 01:11 AM.
Hell
You should take up poetry.
Mr Berthold has explained quite well his observations on the authenticity of the OP button and as we well know his experience is unparalleled and respected in all things SS related. I'm not certain if this is true for the manufacture of all TR era buttons but I feel it's of note. The backs on the majority of the buttons I looked through are of two part construction, with the loop/eyelet being a separate piece. The OP button and a similar one previously posted both seem to be either cast or molded in a singular piece. I'm not sure if that's of significance in helping i.d postwar buttons, but it would certainly make them heavier than the die struck (I believe) backed reverses seen on originals. JMO.
OP button and example from this post.
WWII German SS Totenkopf Insignia Skull Badge Button RZM M5/8
VS. originals (some from this post and others from collectors guild)
Brian
Thanks for all your help!
The inner life of an NSKK button. You can see it is made of several parts.
Here is a real one.
FB and biswula1 have touched upon the relevant details of the item. Authentic ones don’t have such a crude appearance, the suture lines are less deep on some fakes, however, your example seems to lack them entirely. As biswula1 notes, the item in question appears cast, in two pieces, yes, but not quite right. The pebbling is poorly executed and the markings on the reverse are clearly incorrect, they are found on genuine buttons but not on buttons as cap insignia.
The following are genuine examples that came back with a returning soldier...
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