I need a military German SS expert on id of ring

[chark21798]

long story short, Over 30 years ago my best friend brought me to his grandfathers house. He was showing us a bunch of ww2 german items he brought back from germany. He showed us a ring he said he took off an ss officer. I came to have it after all these years. Well i need to get id to b real. Its marked 800 and very heavy ounce. I would like to hear from someone to help me out. thanks mark. Does anyone know of anyone that could authenticate it. How long they been making repos for. I know he had a bunch of nazi items i seen them, but i know thats just my story. Thanks again Had 3 different dealers look at it im up 2-1 on real. Oh well if not its not . Mark

 

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[spartacus53]

I guess the best and only real way to ID the ring is check for marks/numbers inside it, including initials. That would would be the only way as far as I can see. Other than that, the ring could have belonged to Adolf E. Newman

 

[desertfox]

There was no one ring design, each and every officer could have his own design made into a ring if he/she chose to do so. I would guess that yours is real but providing proof is another matter. Good luck and nice looking ring by the way.

 

[AU Seeker]

Mark,

After doing a little research I have found a little info for you.

These ring are termed as " Officer's Totenkopf Rings" and "Kantine rings".

You can do a web search for "Officer's Totenkopf Rings" and get numerous pages to research.

"Silver Totenkopf rings like this were available for private purchase only and were often referred to as "Kantine" rings. They often appeared in ads in the classified sections of the popular German war-time periodicals like "SIGNAL" and "DAS SCHWARZE KORPS" so it's actually a very well known and a well publicized design. They were actually considered "unofficial" and were offered for sale to all Waffen-SS soldiers regardless of their rank, although it's assumed only officers wore the silver versions while EM/NCOs purchased the cheaper silver plated or brass versions. Even though the silver versions were relatively inexpensive at the time, they were considered a luxury item that most EM/NCO SS personnel either couldn't afford to purchase, or were simply not "zealous" enough about their service in the Waffen-SS to spend their meager soldier's pay to own one."

Here is one website I found that has numerous rings for sale from about $300 and up (authenticated rings sell for a much higher price, such as the rings on this website, unauthenticated rings seem to be selling for under $100), though not one exactly like yours, there are two pages, be sure to check out the second page, you maybe able to contact the person from this website to get more info or to authenticate your ring.

The rings are about halfway down on the first page and at the bottom of the second page.

Items page.

http://65.160.172.250/ssi.html

Home page.

http://65.160.172.250/main.shtml

Also there is a book written about these rings that is highly touted by collectors titled Craig Gottlieb "SS Totenkopf Ring", you may want to see if you can check out this book at a library or purchase it for this complete history of these rings.

If you buy this book do a search for the best price.

raiggottlieb.com/data/inspect.asp?Item=2880&Filter=Book+Store&Name=The+SS+Totenkopf+Ring,+Standard+Edition

Skip

 

[Bunker]

Interesting find, congrats!, Nice ID Skip!!!
Bunker

 

[Monty]

I would imagine many of the German SS "Death's Head" items were tossed when the Russians captured SS troops. It is my understanding that they immediately shot any SS troops they captured. Rumor? I don't know, just what was told to me by my Dad. He was in an artillery unit that shelled the Germans in Berlin while waiting on the Russians to capture it. Ike made our troops wait across the river until the Russians captured Berlin for some reason. Monty

 

[chark21798]

Thanks for all your help. Sounds like these are very hard to auth These rings I need to sell but i know the story. But to anyone else that is what it is. Thanks again Mark

 

[AU Seeker]

Thanks for all your help. Sounds like these are very hard to auth These rings I need to sell but i know the story. But to anyone else that is what it is. Thanks again Mark

I would disagree that it would be hard to authenticate the ring, all you need to do is get an expert on this type war memorabilia to have a look at it, the ring if genuine would attest it's own age and authenticity, an expert would be able to tell the difference between modern replica and an original. IMHO


Skip

 

[dg39]

Have been collecting German military for over 30 years.. I will
put it this way 9 out of 10 SS rings are reproductions.. From the edge decoration, I would tend to believe yours falls in the 9 category.
In the past 30 years I have only seen one ring that had all the bells and whistles of an original.
Sad..but there have been just too many reproductions made of just about anything related to the third reich.
DG

 

[tokenhead]

Craig Gottlieb's book will do you no good as his book deal's with ONLY the THR (Totenkoph Honor Ring ) which was given to ss member's and were to be buried when officer died,The one's that made it to the states(THR's)were" bring backs" buy our vet's and are very very exspensive.Your ring has the "totenkoph" skull on face and ss runes on side.Canteen Rings(KANTINE ) were rings that mostly NCO's bought at the canteen to immulate the "special officers"(?) who had received the THR.So there is many variation's but i am SORRY to say your's look's like a fantasy ring.Most German canteen rings were brass&silver plated,The more exspensive ones were marked either 800 or 825...If it is marked STERLING,925,Etc. RUN!!! It's a fake.It is hard to find ORIGINAL deaths head ring's from WW2,WW1 where the Totenkoph was used highly and the rings are more plentyfull.I have been collecting German rings for a little while now.The 1st.pic is a SD/SS prototype ring,2nd.is a Legion Of Condor Panzer( Totekoph )Div. and the 3rd.is a ww1 protest ring from 1916 when there was a blockade of supplies...It basicly says give us a roll or flour,And you can see hallmarks...Hope this helps some!!! HAPPY HUNTING ALL!!!
P.S. Rings are backward order...

 

[NOLA_Ken]

As Dg39 said 9 out of 10.... (more like 9.9 out of 10) are fakes or repros, Looking at yours, from the pics the best I can say is I can't tell one way or the other. Being brought back by a vet after the war sadly is no guarantee that it is authentic, or that it was ever owned or worn by an SS officer. But I can't tell you either way. All I can say is that I've only seen a few that were confirmed genuine....

After the war the jewelers who made them for the SS kept making them to sell to occupation forces because the demand for souvenirs was so big, and they really needed the money. The same is true with some medals, there are an untold number of "genuine" iron crosses that were assembled from left over stock after the war and sold the same way. They constitute a weird grey area for collectors since they are genuine war time parts but assembled after the war... do they count as originals or not? The same is true of the rings that were made from original molds after the war.... How do you tell the difference?

I hope you got lucky and got the real deal, they are in high demand among collectors of SS memorabilia. Try posting it on the Wehrmacht Awards forum, the guy there are probably the most knowledgeable on the planet when it comes to all things Third Reich related.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Have a look at this page, 4th ring from the bottom.... International Military Antiques -Third Reich Jewelry & SS Rings | Oakleaf Militaria It's a confirmed original canteen ring that is a pretty good match for yours. It's listed for $2000. You may want to contact them as well and ask about yours. Please let us know what you find out.

 

[trdking]

What ever you do. DON'T put it on ebay. THey will cancel your account and you will get a chilly phone call from them treating you like you just spread ebola to the city of New York. (personal experience here)

Cheers

 

[Mark4321]

long story short, Over 30 years ago my best friend brought me to his grandfathers house. He was showing us a bunch of ww2 german items he brought back from germany. He showed us a ring he said he took off an ss officer. I came to have it after all these years. Well i need to get id to b real. Its marked 800 and very heavy ounce. I would like to hear from someone to help me out. thanks mark. Does anyone know of anyone that could authenticate it. How long they been making repos for. I know he had a bunch of nazi items i seen them, but i know thats just my story. Thanks again Had 3 different dealers look at it im up 2-1 on real. Oh well if not its not . Mark

Hi Mark, I wouldn't consider myself an expert yet but I study the subject and am a beginning collector. I would say with certainty that the above ring is fake. If you want I can give you the reasons why..
Mark

 

[baspinall]

Looks like a trench art ring to me.

 

[MikeStorney]

Can anyone please tell me what I have here, I found it in my fathers old things, he was a collector of mostly movie and autographed memorabilia. Thanks for the help.

 

[Bruce R]

There were as many variations of the SS ring as there were jewelers in Germany at that time. Personal jewelry was not under the jurisdiction of the RZM. Hard line collectors limit themselves to "maker marked" pieces that can be authenticated. As for your piece, its like this : if you believe in the provenance of the piece ( I would ) then don't sweat it. If you intend on selling it, then it doesn't mean a damned thing to you anyway and no one else will trust it, so you'll get only scrap silver price for it.

 

[nhbenz]

The bird one is (or is supposed to be) from the famous Luftwaffe Legion Condor Jagdgruppe 88 (LC 88), but there seem to be more of these out there than men in that group (like all German rings of the era), and I don't know What to look for on those as clues to authenticity.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagdgruppe_88
Other examples: http://www.google.com/search?q=legi...7rnQAhXGLyYKHT0FB7AQ_AUICigC&biw=1024&bih=672

 

[NOLA_Ken]

I just looked online at a lot of Legion Condor rings that are known to be authentic, but I didn't find an exact match....Now that I'm looking though I am wondering a bit about yours. I did find an Afrika Korps ring online that had a similar look to it that was authentic, so it may be worth the time to have it looked at. They were mostly made locally in Spain from what I can find....

The Totenfopf ring is a tough call, there are more of them out there than were ever made during the war years... a good look at the stamp inside might help to id a maker....

 

[mallagante]

I'll offer you $80 for it reproduction or not....My friend is a museum curator.
Please advise,
Paul