certificate of authenticity

[KoCook]

Are certificates of authenticity for helmets given by any others?
Does anybody else have one for a helmet and by who?
Here is an SS one from weitze by Kelly Hicks.

[Peter B]

Brocks Guns (one of the WAF sponsors) issues them for helmets they sell.

[gertje]

I have one, just a written down 'certificate' by Paolo Marzetti (along with an M1-C jump helmet from his collection).

Marcel

[KoCook]

Thanks, I was just wondering if it were common. I suppose you need to
take them for what they are along with everything else.

[Donald Abenheim]

Certificate of authenticity

At the outset: The following reflects my own experience and intends no generalization on the valuable document above for a helmet by a world authority of great probity. My own experience has been checkered at best and the document was never central to my decision to purchase or not. I received one of these documents from a chap via Ebay for an authentic SS cap which I treasure even today. It was an ex-Czech film piece that is quite authentic and was a bargain. He had received the original document of authenticity, such as it was, from a respected militaria dealer in the eastern US. The document was a well meaning attempt, nonetheless filled with errors. I have seen other documentation for headdress from other dealers in which SS officers are wholly mis-identified. That is, a cap was ascribed to one officer, when, in fact it was the property of another. The error was grave in the extreme, since the true owner of the cap had been in the SS Totenkopfverband, whereas the research material ascribed to the purported owner was a time-server in the Allgemeine SS. Such was my gain, plainly, but it reflected an uncertain hand with the records, which are quite tricky for the uninformed. Further, I have seen other examples of research gone hopelessly wrong, in which a black uniform was ascribed to an SS man from Berlin, when only the latter's belt was indeed from this man. The belt was for a smallish chap, whereas the uniform was huge and for a Bavarian unit. The two had been joined at some point, and while both pieces are authentic, they did not march together in 1936.... This kind of sloppiness is legion. The foregoing in no reflection on Mr. Hicks, who is surely an expert and judicious in his judgments. My point: much of what asserts to be sound historical research is sloppy and needs careful re-examination. Collectors need to learn how to do their own research, as much as their means allow.

[jamesmccann]

I recently got a m40 German helmet with certificate ,and photo all officially stamped by the Russian ministry of culture(allegedly)I am still studying item,James/Ireland.PS THE HELMET IS SUPPOSED TO BE FROM STALINGRAD!

[Donald Abenheim]

Russian Ministries &c.

Do our Russian colleagues have experience of such documents?

[jamesmccann]

Do our Russian colleagues have experience of such documents?

Good question, and a reply would be helpful for me in authenticating helmets origins ,James/iRELAND.