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German Helmet Vault - Tracking the Fakes and Q&A forumGerman WW2 Helmets: German Helmets : Questions & AnswersThat LW M42 in hand now.Post Reply

Post Reply: That LW M42 in hand now.

<blockquote><div class="quotetitle">Quote from <a class="profile-link highlight-default" href="#">Guppy35</a> on May 6, 2021, 4:38 am</div>Maybe I'm just tired after a long day, but your comment really rubbed me the wrong way.  To me it shows again, everything wrong with a huge portion of the collecting world, at least in my mind.  All I'm seeing when you say value, is monetary worth.   How dare someone do something to a helmet and destroy that 'value'.

Note the picture below.  That is of the marking in the first German helmet I ever had, and still have.  My uncle had found it in a junkyard in the late 50s.  I talked him out of it in the very early 70s when he saw how fascinated, if not obsess I was with WW1 and 2 history.  One of the first things I did in about 1972-3 was sand the area where I saw letters and numbers.  I wanted to know what they were.  Even worse is I later sanded off the rusty and damaged paint on the shell. and spray painted it with dark gray paint.  How dare I not consider that someone might want to make money off it later.  How dare I want to learn as much as I could about a piece of history.  It was not about money it was about knowledge.  And at age 13 it made sense to me.  For all I know the same thing happened to this one.  Could be the liner got wrecked by kids playing with it.  There is no backstory on it, no provenance.  I liked the look and it reminded me of the one that my great uncle had that has now disappeared.  Yes I saw that as a kid and it along with that M16 WW1 helmet and the other German helmet another great uncle had brought home, that he later gave to a neighborhood kid to play army with, it fed my desire to learn more.

Later in meeting with vets and learning their stories, never once was it about monetary value.  Not one asked for money when they borrowed me or gave me photos or paperwork as I tried to put together their story.  I didn't ask for money when I gave it to the guy who finally authored the unit history.  It has always been about saving the history not making money.

There were 100s of thousands of these helmets made.  As soon as it became about money, fools everywhere destroyed it by forging and faking it with the helmets.  History always loses to money.

The man I met today wasn't trying to sell me on it.  As I said, I got a chance to go into his Aladdin's cave and it was a bit of heaven for a history junkie like me.  The comment suggesting he might have damaged this one, comes across as arrogant and self serving.  This old Vietnam combat bet was kind enough to share his stuff with me and let me have hands on stuff to look closer.  Would you let a 'stranger' handle your "Tommy gun" of  you had one?  He did.  MP40?  I doubt it.  He did.  He shared the history he'd preserved with me.

I hope I read it wrong.  Maybe my enthusiasm posting images and such makes you think I'm some sort of internet troll or something.  I don't know.  And again I hope I read it wrong.  But over fifty years ago I read my first book on WW2 after finding it in my elementary school library.  I've been gathering books and watching for pictures, stories and whatever ever since.  Not once have I sold  a helmet or any piece of gear.  I'll give it to someone else when I'm done with it or when I see their interest is genuine.  And I've given a lot of stuff away.  Preserving and sharing the history is my only goal with this.  Making sure my kids and now my grandkids learn the history and can get their hands on it, matters to me.

I'm not condemning those who do this as an investment and see it as money first, but do me a favor, as in my case I don't give a rip about it's monetary value, only what it represents and the history it helps teach.  Keep it in mind when you answer what may be a stupid question by an old guy who figured out a long time ago, that the more I learn the less I know.  I want to learn more every day if I can.

I'm sorry if my little kid enthusiasm shows up in my questions etc.  That excitement has never left me and won't.  It keeps my blood pumping.

End of rant.  I'll shut up now.</blockquote><br>

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German Helmet Vault

Collecting German WW2 helmets

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