Staatskasino? SS-Reich? Help, please !

[GREG E.]

Not sure if this is the right section to post this question in, but... here goes!

These two interesting pieces of cutlery (for serving fish, I presume) recently came out of a small, private collection here in south-central Virginia. They are both nicely and correctly maker-marked ART. KRUPP BERNDORF. The obverse features the word STAATSKASINO stamped in capital letters, while the reverse features the SS-Reich stamping. I don't understand this! Why the double marking? Was this originally Staatskasino cutlery that was appropriated by the SS-Reich division? Or has the SS-Reich marking been added post-war to make the silverware more desirable to collectors?

I am interested to know fellow collectors' opinions. Thanks in advance to anyone who might be able to shed some light on this subject!

[Frogprince]

The shortest answer is that the maker stampings look like they were actually stamped. But the "SS - Reich" markings look like they were made one character at a time, most likely as postwar engraving. But that's using what's in the images posted, preferred would be better even closer imaging with those markings closer together for a more accurate side by side comparison. With that said, they would not be something for me. FP

[spoo]

The maker mark is correct. The Staatskasino is absolutely correct, but the SS Reich was added sometime in the past two years with that type of darkened black lazer engraving.

[GREG E.]

Post-War Embellishment

I tend to agree with this assessment. The embellishment of otherwise original vintage cutlery via the addition of spurious SS-Reich markings seems to be a common "problem" these days. For reference, herebelow are several pics of a spoon with another style of SS-Reich marking that was also determined to be fake (i.e. - applied post-war).

- GREG E.

The maker mark is correct. The Staatskasino is absolutely correct, but the SS Reich was added sometime in the past two years with that type of darkened black lazer engraving.

[Special K]

This 2 pieces of cutlery are Original Staatskasino cutlery. The markings ART KRUPP BERNDORF 30 90 is perfect. The only thing is the SS Reich markings. I can say with no doubt that the cutlery is Staatskasino cutlery but the SS Reich has been added later. SS Reich is not even perfect to Reich era as seen before, so I am saying this was added post war by someone who has ruined 2 beautiful pieces of Third Reich silverware.