Kriegsmarine Cap tally-good or bad??

[John R.]

I was refering to the rear of the Tally and the fraying of the thread, Metal thread is intact so it must be another construction then?

JustinC

This tally of course dates from 1939 or later, so long enough to fray, tear, have holes, and who knows what.

Who knows who handled it and how it was stored. Some are mint, some look pretty rough, this one is OK in condition IMO.

Original "gold wire" thread and as stated above, the style of the letters varied considerably depending on the manufacturer and settings on the loom.

You can use the style of the letters to some extent of course, but the reverse is more important to see the materials used (Cellon, Cotton, or Gold Wire) to use the nomenclature of this forum to describe them.

John

[John R.]

This tally could never have been worn though. It is gigantic at 76 inches. Most come in at around 150 cms and cut down for wear at 105 cms or so.

They did come in long lengths like this, but unusual to find one. Does not make it more or less valuable--just came from the factory like this.

John

[John R.]

Not one of the guys that said that is was good, commented why it was good.
IMO it is a wrong tallie and you can detect it by looking at the sharp right edge of the letter E, check out the other threads and compare your E with confirmed genuine E's from in photo albums, on pictures and pillow sewn on pieces of VETs and what will you see: rounded right side edge on all these E's! That is how I discovered the difference between real and fake.

Glaser,

I thought the same as you when I first started and had no references, no help, nothing, to help me with these. So I tried to use the letter shapes as a guide until informed by collectors in Germany that my method was badly flawed.

You must go by the reverse to confirm the obverse.

John

[glaser]

thx

hello John
I look forward to see some back side pictures good and bad and learn from you!

[Norm F]

Hi Guys,

Well, since this old thread has been dragged up again, I guess I'll post a comment.

I like to think that since the original time of this posting, the standard of photo quality for definitive opinions to be offered has improved. You really need a good closeup, at least of the reverse detail and preferably both obverse and reverse to say for sure, but based on what I see here I'd guess Mike's tally at the top of the thread was a Cellon thread tally with fraying of the threads on the reverse (as noted by both Justins).

Jody's in post #10 (again without closeups) looks most like a nice mint Kunstseide ("imitation silk"/mercerized cotton) tally to me.

If these are indeed the materials as they seem, then Mike's would be a private purchase tally dating anywhere after September, 1939, while Jody's would be official issue from the Marine Bekleidungsamt anytime after mid-1938 (from the information provided by Markus in the reference thread).

Best regards,
---Norm

[John R.]

Agree Norm.

Cellon has the longer ends at the end of the loops, while cotton has a more dot like appearance.

Need to be careful though, fakes that are not clearly photographed can look like either.

John