Military Artifacts Research and Sales

ABOUT RARE MILITARIA

THE COLLECTOR AS A CARETAKER OFHISTORY

As an analogy, the collector, like any good reporter, must learn how to sift through available facts, faulty memories, untrue embellishments and gaps in available files and records to make a decision regarding the value of potentially adding a particular item(s) to their collection. To avoid the trap of convincing himself or herself of what they might want to believe, the collector should always ask a simple question before making any substantial purchase decision: "will I be able to easily reclaim the amount of money I am spending for this piece? If the realistic answer to that question is no, regardless of whether due to excessive price or numerous questions requiring the need for extensive explanations, it may be wise to proceed with caution.

Not wishing to expend the effort necessary to learn, many collectors foolishly and blindly accept, the accuracy of a sole opinion obtained from a self appointed expert, without first confirming that the source in question even has a comprehensive grasp of the subject(s) involved. It would be similarly wise to consider whether the party, whose opinion is being solicited, would derive any type of financial benefit(s) by responding to questions raised in one way or another?

THE HITLER DIARIES FIASCO

One famous example of such misplaced trust was the so called "Hitler Diaries" which were purchased and published by Der Spiegel magazine in Germany a number of years ago. These diaries, which were hand written into twelve (12) identical bound journals, allegedly contained the personal thoughts of Der Fuhrer on a day by day basis for each of the twelve (12) years in the life of the Third Reich.

To authenticate such obviously important historical documents, Der Speigel solicited the opinions of several noted experts on Nazi Germany, most notably including a distinguished and well known English author. Unfortunately, with all due respect to the party involved, he did not speak or write the German language.

Consequently, when this noted expert, together with his equally well known associates, concluded that the HITLER diaries were all original, common sense dictates that his opinion was produced under circumstances that should have reasonably prevented it from being accepted as the definitive word on the subject - which it unfortunately was. Eventually, the entire hoax fell apart when serious and professional historians, such as David Irving, found obvious grammatical errors in the text, while others simply asked a common sense question, "How did Der Fuhrer know in 1933 to purchase twelve (12) identical journal books?

COMMON SENSE APPROACH WORKS BEST

In most instances of attempted hoaxes of this nature, a simple, common sense approach could have provided an effective warning for the victim. As an example, the majority of all German soldiers, just like their US counterparts, were thin individuals with small head and body sizes.

This youthful smallness of head sizes for clothing purposes was often accentuated by very short hair cuts. Further, based on demanding training schedules and other activity factors, combat soldiers of WWII were often thin, and certainly not middle aged men with a spare tire and long hair hoping to find an original German hat or tunic that will comfortably fit them today.

In considering this common sense approach, while a German hat in a small size (such as 55) is usually a very slow seller at a show, while a newer looking, larger size hat sells more quickly, which of these two examples has the greater inherent chance of being original? If you said the size 55 hat, you are correct and have obtained a basic understanding of the rules of the road. The only question left to answer is which piece do you really want to collect?

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