May I ask how you can tell?

Thankyou Sir, I appreciate the insight, 

It’s unfortunately a repro.   Synthetic threads 

Hey welcome to the forum! Do you have any specific collecting focuses in mind? Firearms, patches, gear, ordnance, uniforms etc? Either way I’m sure you can find whatever you need here on the forum and everyone is willing to help👍

Hello, I am new to this sort of thing and I was wondering if anyone could help me determine if this patch id authentic or not.    Respectfully, Will

Just to update this thread.    Attached is a picture of 5 dimple back, aka likely restrike, disks.

I am a novice collector with a small but decent collection which currently consists of a Reeves 30 cal ammo can, an M1 Garand bayonet, a M1916 holster, a few 5 round stripper clips and 2 boxes of German WW2 8mm mauser ammunition. I plan to grow my collection over time and any advice on what to look for in a legit relic would be awesome.

It is starting to look much better! I have an WW2 M1916 holster made by Warren Leather Goods that looks a little rough, could really use dome TLC and confitioning

I wore both German and US helmets in my soap box but they weren’t painted.   If you put it on eBay and call it a Raider helmet I’m sure there are people who would agree with you.

The United Marines States Marine Corps did not allow helmet covers to be marked up in Vietnam for years. It's not until the late 60's that you see this happening and its only happening out of country. It was only tolerated for a minute out of country  but its not tolerated now. Why would the Marine's allow United States Government property to be defaced within the boarders of the United States of America?     I can see that being an argument for what's wrong with this. Do we not have any DI's that can speak to this?