There's One Made Every Minute

SS Bullion Collar Tabs

In this installment on repro cloth insignia I want to show you some examples of the currently imported fake SS collar tabs. You may think l'm overly concerned with the SS, what with last month's installment on SS cufftitles and now this one on SS collar tabs, but the fact is that SS insignia is a favorite not only with collectors. but with the fakers. And considering the money at stake I think everyone should be aware of what's happening.

It's said a picture is worth a thousand words, and this couldn't be more true any where than in militaria collecting. Therefore, I'm devoting most of the space available for this article to the pictures.

All of the retros shown here are good enough to fool a novice collector, and there is no way that I can make an expert out of everyone with this article. The best thing to do to protect yourself is to remember that originals of these are almost always made with extreme precision. If you look closely at a quality bullion SS collar tab, one that is of the usual type, not some weird variation made in "Lower Slabovia", and you notice any sloppiness in the workmanship, then be careful. Studying originals is also a must. Visit a collector friend who knows his stuff and study the pieces in his collection that you're sure of.

Above: Detail of some tabs. One the left is an original and in middle is the repro. Arrows points to the edges of the oakleaves showing the obvious difference in quality of the embroidery. "Tight", this the word I use most often to describe SS embroidery. On the right is detail of the back of an original tab. Note the pattern of the backing material. It is of a milky white and somewhat shinny. Almost all original tabs have this type of backing, only the size of the opening in the black material varies.

In the above pictures; at first glance they look pretty good. They're fake. Notice on the "Ost" tab (No. 1) that the upper tip of the "t" is very sloppy and on the tabs with the crossed lances (No. 2&4) there is a lack of precision in the embroidery, the lance poles are almost crooked. The oakleaf tab (No. 5) is VERY well done. The shape of the oakleaves in almost exactly like that of an original SA Gruppenfuhrer. This piece is in silver bullion on black and was offered as an SS tab, even thought the SS did not use this shape leaves. If the maker can do this in silver on black then he can do it in other colors as SA tabs. No. 7 is so well done it's spooky! I suggest great care when buying these types of tabs, as these fakes can be real tough to identify.

In the above pictures the left are original tabs, on the right are fakes. Note the fine quality of the embroidery on the originals, the strands of thread are sewn very evenly with almost perfect spacing (tight), whereas on the fakes there is an unevenness and lack of precision to the embroidery. Notice the pips on the two originals are slightly different. This is fine, because variations do exist.

One last point. The bullion wire of SS tabs is made up of a round center core thread around which is wrapped a flat aluminum thread. On every "original" SS bullion tab I've ever seen, the center core thread is white. I have encounted some good looking fakes that had a black center core.

Bob Treend, "There's One Made Every Minute", Der Gauleiter, 1990