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101st AB laundry code Fake?


Phantomf4
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Hello some of you may remember that I posted this coat earlier, I have a guy who suspects the laundry code is fake. Now I've collected stuff for a long time and have no issues with it. Where I got this coat was from a friend who has no knowledge of laundry codes etc. and plus he bought it cheap. I need some help here fellows. I'll get better pic's in a few. thanks

post-153748-0-64295900-1416445118.jpg

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Let me preface my response by saying I am nowhere near an expert on laundry codes. I don't own a lot of marked items currently, but have had a number of items throuought the years. My response is strictly how I would react to this. There are two things that might raise questions for me.

 

First, it is green. I've not had anything with laundry codes other than black. All the current items I have that are marked are black. I have a couple of private purchase marking kits and they are black ink as well. Second, the markings seem...I don't know exactly, but kinda of "crisp"? They seem too well done to the ones I've seen that were done by hand.

 

Now again, this is just my opinion and I am far from an expert. I am sure there were other marking colors available and I am sure there were many "crisp" markings. Just with this being "101st" and the color and crispness, I'd at least wonder about it.

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Yes and one of his concerns was it looked like a magic marker, which in fact colored markers have been around since 1926. The coat itself is in near mint condition so I suspect it wasn't used much.

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Depends on how much your friend got it for. If he got it for say, $10 at a flea market from some lady that cleans out estates is a whole different story than $200 off of eBay

 

-Dave

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Like many things in this hobby, I don't think it can be either proven or disproven. Nothing really screams fake to me. If everything else checks out you just go with your gut feeling.

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carbinephalen

The only reason somebody would put a specific laundry mark (and no last name) into a jacket was to try to pass it off as a specific veteran that served in that unit. If it didn't come with a back story, I would assess that it is legit

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Wanted to come back to this because I was sorting through some things at home and, lo and behold, I have an OD3 (Khaki) barracks bag that is marked with a code and it is in green ink! So, I stand corrected and green definitely was/could have been used for the laundry code on the aforementioned item.

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Although black is the most common color, I have also seen items marked in blue, green and red. Felt tipped laundry markers did exist in WWII as well, they just weren't all that common.

 

As an example, this is an M1936 Field Bag that Bay State currently has for sale: http://www.baystatemilitaria.com/WWII/DSCN1250n.JPG

And Johnson's enlistment record: http://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=WR26&tf=F&sc=24994,24995,24996,24998,24997,24993,24981,24983&bc=,sl,fd&txt_24994=32375523&op_24994=0&nfo_24994=V,8,1900&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=2997353

 

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gliderrider401

I have found that purple is also a common color for a lot of Airborne and Troop Carrier jackets I've obtained/seen over the years.

 

Rich

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