Originally Posted by
bigduke6
John, considering there was no standard at first and all the stamps are available and the market is flooded with repro mounts etc, then it is a mine field, did a bit of research many years ago, but considering I can't even remember were I've put my keys these days then it all comes down to the eye.
I've worked with metal for many years......... its got a distinct look about it from 75 years ago, the wear and tear, the finish, the colour (bluing etc), the tooling marks and the rust which is now known as patina to many dealers eyes......
For me when someone slaps a new made mount with tooling marks from a CNC, total wrong colour and no patina........ in the words of Peter Laidlericon, stands out like a bull dogs bollocks.
I'm certainly no expert very far from it, but I've said in the past if the forger did a little bit more homework then some of the stuff would or could be taken as the real deal......
Its just the human nature in us, we like shiny and nice things this along with the auction catalogue descriptions....... and armed with a pocket full of money and something we have been looking for can lead to a disastrous purchase........ lucky for me I don't collect German stuff, had a few helmets in the past but thats about it.