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Thoughts on this familiar m1 medic helmet...?


walleyealx
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54 minutes ago, MattS said:

Occam's razor, it most likely looks like an original medic helmet because it is an original medic helmet.

 

Enjoy it, nice lid. 

Sorry Matt - I normally don’t bite on comments like this, but 😁:

 

I will add McGary’s Corrolary, that would simultaneously pull out the “most likely” modifier as a risk component (margin of error); and, would add that the Law of Parsimony doesn’t accommodate for fakers trying to get philosophers to accept erroneous explanations.  
 

Bottom line, I think it’s dangerous to send newer - or any - collectors down the path of believing something is good if it looks good.  We’ve had too many high-end helmets get debunked as fakes to do so - helmets that looked original to the community, and were not.

 

 

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a word of advice------------ this collecting militaria has turned into a mine field. going way back when I got really involved in collecting it was the German stuff you had to watch out for. repros up the kazoo and new comers were screwed royally. now with the making of the big screen movies the GI stuff has been crapped on taking many by fraud with the dishonest cashing in. what im saying is this----------- if you are worried about being taken for a ride and loosing money stop collecting now for this hobby is not only costly but, also a big mine field. if you have doubts about the lid return it and rest easy.

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huntssurplus

Agreed with lots of the sentiment here. I think the helmet has a chance, but then again every helmet does at least at first really. 

 

Most veteran helmet collectors, or at least those that have been in the game for long enough or have deep enough pockets, have either purchased and returned, or still have at least one helmet in their collection that they look at with uncertainty as to its originality. And that is just part of the hobby. You can never be 100% about things, and while this forum is probably the best place to go when it comes to authenticating, it's also not very good when it comes to how many helmets have been proven fake it's deemed original or vice versa. We are an imperfect community, but it is what it is. 

 

if you can place this helmet on the shelf knowing you paid $840 or however much it cost and be okay knowing that it could be original, or it could not, then you are fine. It's a risk just like any investment. In a decade if it some new technology comes out and it is proven to be 100% real it will likely double in value as helmets no longer need to have that bit of "insecurity" as to whether it is original or not and people can rest easy with their purchases. If it is found to be fake then you will most likely have lost out on a lot of money. Like I said earlier it is what it is. There are few things in life without some level of risk, and like the stock market, militaria needs its own level of risk tolerance as well. 

 

I appreciate you posting the better photos for discussion, as I personally like the discussion that comes from these helmets. it helps to really can help you to learn if you just read all of the the different opinions and reasoning (albeit there should be some rule where if you give an opinion onto authenticity you need to state a reason why to prevent the unhelpful comments of "I like it" or "i don't like it" that add nothing to the discussion).

 

In the end if you have the money and tolerance to take the risk, take the risk. If not, return the helmet. If you want to buy the reference books, buy the reference books. If not, don't. You can go and invest in the stock market without any knowledge and win big, or lose even bigger. Same thing with helmets. Knowledge will save you money, but risk has the possibility to make you more. 

 

In the end if you can place it on your shelf and look at it and like it like that, and be okay with how much you spent on it, does anything else really matter?

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Fine. I guess living in a constant state of uncertainty is the new norm, so maybe it's good, maybe it's a pile of crap. No one has any evidence or proof one way or the other, only "conjecture and opinions".

 

Or buy a repro and rest easy knowing it's always going to be fake.

 

Might as well lock this thread too. 

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3 hours ago, MattS said:

Fine. I guess living in a constant state of uncertainty is the new norm, so maybe it's good, maybe it's a pile of crap. No one has any evidence or proof one way or the other, only "conjecture and opinions".

 

Or buy a repro and rest easy knowing it's always going to be fake.

 

Might as well lock this thread too. 

 

Or maybe guys could discuss helmets in a gentlemanly fashion and the threads would not need to be locked.

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Part of the problem with modern age technology is that we collect virtually.

 

In the old days you would spend a couple of days at a show where in some cases you could handle scores of helmets, talk to the owner and other collectors.

 

Now we sit looking at a picture that isn’t always a correct portrayal.

 

Its hard as heck collecting that way.


 

 

 

 

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pararaftanr2

Welcome to the Forum walleyealx!

I'm no expert, but the OP, a new member here, went to the trouble of posting 27 views of his helmet's finish through a jeweler's loupe. Can anybody, with the expertise to know what they are looking at, tell us what they like, or don't like, about what he has shown us in such detail? I'm also curious if anyone knows what unit would have marked their helmets like this, with only the single red cross on the left side and a big white number on the right side? Some have mentioned they've seen similarly marked helmets with other single digit numbers in the past. It seems counterintuitive to me, if you want the enemy to see you are a medic, that you would only paint the big red cross on one side? If you didn't want the enemy to know who you were, then why not paint it small and inconspicuous, like some did in the PTO?

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Hunter Whittaker

Original markings applied during there time in service likely in the late 40's-50's (post ww2) IMHO. There are other matching helmets to this one but all of them to my knowledge are late ww2 rear-seams.

I own helmet #2

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On 8/15/2020 at 12:17 AM, pararaftanr2 said:

Welcome to the Forum walleyealx!

I'm no expert, but the OP, a new member here, went to the trouble of posting 27 views of his helmet's finish through a jeweler's loupe. Can anybody, with the expertise to know what they are looking at, tell us what they like, or don't like, about what he has shown us in such detail? I'm also curious if anyone knows what unit would have marked their helmets like this, with only the single red cross on the left side and a big white number on the right side? Some have mentioned they've seen similarly marked helmets with other single digit numbers in the past. It seems counterintuitive to me, if you want the enemy to see you are a medic, that you would only paint the big red cross on one side? If you didn't want the enemy to know who you were, then why not paint it small and inconspicuous, like some did in the PTO?

 


Thank you guys for all of your responses. I really do appreciate it. Does anyone have anything in particular to add about the bolded part regarding the loupe pictures?

 

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milsurp_scout_14

The one thing I notice immediately on the red crosses is the marks left by another shell being stacked on top of it. The fakers tend to mark up their crosses with 'wear marks', but I don't think anyone has yet mashed another shell down on top to leave those marks. Usually you only see that when the shell has been in military service/ storage. 

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I've been racking my brain trying to decipher the inscription on the inside of the liner. I don't know how I missed this writing on the inside on the leather. 

 

So it is for sure Powell, and it looks like

 

?ME88 #3

 

Has anyone seen any familiar inscriptions like this? Medical 88th? Any other thoughts?

 

Thanks!

20200821_233716.jpg

20200821_225622.jpg

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<a href="https://ibb.co/wsZvBp1"><img src="https://i.ibb.co/RyG5YQW/Bluehue.png" alt="Bluehue" border="0"></a><br /><a target='_blank' href='https://imgbb.com/'>site to upload files for sharing</a><br />

headband.jpeg

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Here is a link to one of the files that I edited as it is too big to upload. I'm still thinkin "?ME88 #3"

 

https://ibb.co/wsZvBp1

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4 minutes ago, ArchangelDM said:


is it green ball point pen ?

Looks to have a green hue. My first thought was ballpoint, which would fit the Korea theory.

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4 minutes ago, walleyealx said:

Looks to have a green hue. My first thought was ballpoint, which would fit the Korea theory.


Thanks for that 

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Ive got a mid to late 50's lid with ball point pen writing on the band, looks very similar in color to yours.

post-181333-0-02080100-1555698139.jpg

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