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Former secretary of def louis Johnson canteen


Cends5
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Took a shot on this at auction for 40 bucks.its claimed to have belonged to Louis a johnson Truman's secretary of defense.any good ways to verify this besides the stampings and unit roster?

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Normally, when I am trying to determine originality on an item, I ask myself, why someone would want to fake the item? what motivates them? For $40, I think it would be hardly worth anyone's time to hand stamp all of those letters, stencil and age the black paint on the canteen cover etc. just to make a $40 item worth about $40? 

 

Louis A. Johnson did serve in the 305th Ammunition Train in WWI as a Captain. I think that short of having a letter of provenance, you can make a pretty safe bet that the canteen was owned and used by the man whose name and initials appear on these items.

 

Allan

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I agree with Allan - adhering to the motivation, means, and opportunity approach to gumshoeing, means and opportunity are arguable always present in fakery, but $40 isn’t a huge motivator.
 

Also, I’ve seen a fair number of personalized cups like that, and they almost always use those same letter punch sets.  I think it’s legit.

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I was less concerned with it being fake and more wondering whats the best way to make sure im associating it with the right person.id like to display it but don't want to have the wrong johnson 

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I'm quite certain there was no other Louis A. Johnson in the 305th Ammunition Train in WWI. His Wiki bio shows him in the same unit.

 

Allan

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