I Found the Holy Grail ..................

**Robin Lumsden** · 11-06-2021, 10:50 PM

Early staff member TK collar patches were un-numbered .................

**Espenlaub Militaria** · 11-06-2021 10:50 PM

We also buy and trade your items and full collections!

**FALLSCHIRMJAGER** · 11-06-2021, 10:58 PM

by Robin Lumsden

Thanks Leon. That was the last book I ever wrote, and now I'm so old I can hardly even remember writing it !!

Age is a bit of a bugger isn't it!!!
My legs cannot run any more and I left family life a touch later than most ,my nippers are 6 and 4 ( i am 47)! Leon.

**Robin Lumsden** · 11-07-2021, 12:01 AM

by FALLSCHIRMJAGER

I left family life a touch later than most. My nippers are 6 and 4. I am 47 ! Leon.

Good for you !!

**Robin Lumsden** · 11-11-2021, 10:43 PM

There aren't too many of these early M35 TK collar patches out there ............... even in the most advanced, very old collections.

Even so, my little TK mosaic pales in comparison to these wonderful TK displays amassed over very many years by Bob Hritz, Dave Delich and Lyn Gamelson................

**Robin Lumsden** · 11-11-2021, 10:50 PM

by CBH

Here is another shot of the "2" TK , that I sold awhile back, sorry that you missed out on that one.

Both side by side !!

**Rich Moran** · 11-12-2021, 10:35 AM

is Lyn Gamelson still collecting? Last I heard he was selling his collection. He had a wonderful SS insignia collection!

**Robin Lumsden** · 11-12-2021, 08:17 PM

by Rich Moran

is Lyn Gamelson still collecting? Last I heard he was selling his collection. He had a wonderful SS insignia collection!

I think he sold it all off, Rich.

Some of his TKs appeared on the Andreas Thies website a few years back.

Here's a sample picture from the sale.

The 'TK8' patch alone had a reserve price of 4800 Euro.

**Robin Lumsden** · 11-13-2021, 02:10 AM

Another 'side-by-side' comparison photo, showing the only two surviving M35 'TK1' collar patches I know of, for men of the senior (1st) Hundertschaft of SS-Wachtruppe 'Oberbayern', stationed at Dachau. This type of TK patch was worn only from 1935 - 1936.

The term 'SS-Totenkopfverbaende' was not introduced officially by Eicke until March 1936, when this pattern of collar patch was rendered obsolete, being replaced by the well-known M36 patch.

So, this is an 'SS-TK' collar patch which was worn before the term 'SS-TV' was actually official.

**d'alquen** · 11-13-2021, 04:12 AM

Therefore, to be precise, it is not an "SS-TV" collar patch but an SS-Wachverbände collar patch.

**Rich Moran** · 11-13-2021, 06:47 AM

by Robin Lumsden

I think he sold it all off, Rich.

Some of his TKs appeared on the Andreas Thies website a few years back.

Here's a sample picture from the sale.

The 'TK8' patch alone had a reserve price of 4800 Euro.

Thanks for the reply Robin.

I picked up some of the insignia, the Gruppenfurher 1st and 2nd issue collar tabs, the mirror SS collar tabs and a few others & a cased GPB he had.

I saw the early TKV and had them on the list of items I wanted but ran out of cash due to cash needs for my business.

i asked him what was going to happen if he did not sell everything thinking I could try to get him to hold items but realized he wanted to head west out of the plains winters. Would of not been fair to him, as defaulting on my commitments with sellers is not in my nature.

Lyn did advise he might still collect but to a lesser degree but needed to move the collection for that planned move.

I wanted to stay in touch with him but a computer crash took all my contacts and emails to the grave. If you still chat with him, please let him know I said Aloha.

Such is life with these things. Learned my lesson and have a back up drive now for such events. Still fortunate though as I have the list I created with the wants and asking prices he had. Looking at the prices recently, compared to today all I can say is wow, how rapidly everything has gone up and how much rarer trying to find the insignia today is. Saddest part is I had all the images of what he was selling but no more.

That collar tab you have is a great addition to your collection as your keenly aware. Congratulations!

As a final note I was able to locate the 1 and only "SS Totenkophverbande" probst cuff title here locally in Hawaii.

I had that for a couple of years and yet kick myself for selling that to pay for my sons schooling.

That SS TKV cuff title the last I knew resides in Jim Toncars collection and is a mint item. I posted an image of it over at WAF and got a debbie downer email from Jim stating "take the image down its my cuff title". My thoughts are yet today that collectors should be able to see these fine & rare items and i yet have images of that specimen.