http://www.craiggottlieb.com/engine/inspect.asp?Item=6508&Filter=German+Militaria
This is an ORIGINAL winter camouflage helmet, which has been inspected physically for authenticity by Kelly Hicks. This is important, as what could amount to a quick splash of paint on a regular army helmet, can yield a handsome profit for the unethical collector or dealer. I picked up this helmet personally, out of a Laguna Beach family's residence, and it has not been in a collection. It's an M42, with no decal, placing this squarely on the Eastern Front during the long painful retreat of the Wehrmacht from Russia. Rear of the lid is EF62 marked, with a batch number below it that appears to read 19980. Liner has been preserved at some point with a lanolin or other leather preservative, which has kept the liner nicely intact with almost no rot. There is no chinstrap, and the tie that holds the liner tongues together appears to be a piece of shoelace, and not an original (we have an original tie if one is desired, which we will be happy to provide to the buyer of this helmet at no extra charge).
Price: $1,895.00
IMO the snow camo above, on the fake shell, is more believable than this one.
I see no reason whatsoever for an Eastern Front connection because the vast majority of helmets sent there never returned. The Soviets controlled the battlefields from Moscow/Stalingrad/Leningrad all the way to the middle of Germany to eventually include all of Eastern Europe. The liner/underside is unconvincing (disparity of wear), but there is a free liner string
See post#1 for a similar snow camo.
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This is an ORIGINAL winter camouflage helmet, which has been inspected physically for authenticity by Kelly Hicks.
When we need to be told what is original, we are in way over our heads in this hobby. We as collectors should be leery when a few well-known moderators/dealers are telling all the rest of us what is and what is not original, as if only they alone can know the truth and the rest of us are dependent on the few.
This is important, as what could amount to a quick splash of paint on a regular army helmet, can yield a handsome profit for the unethical collector or dealer.
You must be kidding me. You mean it's
that easy, just a quick splash of paint on a plain old $300 no-decal helmet can turn it into a camo helmet worth thousands?
I picked up this helmet personally, out of a Laguna Beach family's residence, and it has not been in a collection.
Well, that settles it then. It must be original because most of the rest of us can't tell.
It's an M42, with no decal, placing this squarely on the Eastern Front during the long painful retreat of the Wehrmacht from Russia.
So every no-decal M42 is direct from the Russian Front ? How did so many of these Russian Front helmets make it into the hands of Allied troops and from there to western collectors ? The Eastern Front and the Western Front were two distinct fronts that really did not cross one another, meeting face to face on the Elbe River on 25 April, 1945. After the war, the Elbe become the dividing line between East and West Germany. I do not see how many Eastern Front helmets could have made it into the hands of Western Collectors (no doubt a few did). Almost every Eastern Front helmet I have ever seen was a ground-dug relic.
Liner has been preserved at some point with a lanolin or other leather preservative, which has kept the liner nicely intact with almost no rot.
The liner is in such nice condition, it doesn't seem to match the story of it coming from the Russian Front, during that long and painful retreat from Russia.
There is no chinstrap, and the tie that holds the liner tongues together appears to be a piece of shoelace, and not an original (we have an original tie if one is desired, which we will be happy to provide to the buyer of this helmet at no extra charge).
Well that's nice. If I'm going to pay over $1900 for a helmet with so many questions, I should at least get an original tie string.
