LW Hermann Goering Division Panzer Tab- Original?

[Panzer]

Hi again,

sorry....skull looks like a complete fake.....it is too thin, and the back looks like it was made yesterday....something not seen on originals. Looks like this still goes in the junk draw!
Cheers, Wade K.

[CSP]

Were it mine to consider keeping or not, I would not. Even if some parts are original, it has little collecting value - historical value is doubtful given how odd it is. Panzer tabs are not terribly rare...originals do turn up and you would be better off from a collecting standpoint to go for an example that conforms/is unquestionable. If you think you have a rare piece of history, keep it and maybe some day that can be validated...but until then, as a collection item, I would think you would be most correct to state it as an odd, questionable piece in your collection. We all have such things if we are willing to admit to it.

I believe the pins - should I say nails? - on the skull to be a dead give away as a reproduction totenkopf. Wade thinks the stamped metal is too thin...but I must defer to his experience there as I am not sure. The piping, as already noted, is different than anything I have seen other than similar stuff on obvious fakes. There is a chance that the black cloth can be a scrap of original cloth. The burlap/buckram may or may not be authentic, but based on the looseness of the weave of it and the sloppy glue, I think it looks more post-war than wartime (an argument, observation similar to the helmet chicken wire debates over the number and types of twists...bottom line...it does not look all that right and that is merely and observation from an interested perspective on this stuff).

Hope this is seen as constructive - and thus, helpful.

[Brig]

I'm pretty sure since the glue covers the entire back, that it was glued down to something like a photo album. The Breast eagle I got had dots of glue on the back of it, too

[PANZERPIONIERE]

I totally agree with Wade.

Steve