Pre-war German Sleeve Insignia - Need Help with ID & Value

L

loosecannon

New member
Greetings...signed on to see if I can some help with ID & some values on several sleeve insignia I picked up. These all appear to be pre-war and are stitched on some old collection cards that have partial ID's, but apparently wrong to some degree. I found some info here, just by accident, but more than I got elsewhere. Until I get some photos up, what I have are 2 sleeve insignia on feldgrau that look like shoulder straps, but are round on both ends and just the wool top with a backing. These 2 are numbered in raised red stitch, 33 & 41. I also have the same on gray with 212 in red stitch numbers, the last is on red with a yellow stitch letter F. The one with the "F" has telephone battalion on the card, the others state infantry but call them shoulder straps, which a friend has indicated they are not and that is confirmed in some photos on this site that are similar. I also have a medical cadeusus on a feldgrau oval, another on blue and another on tan cloth or HBT, the blue and tan have a yellow cadeusus, the feldgrau is more orange/yellow. Last are a signals flags on blue round and a flaming shell on feldgrau in yellow. Most have some mothing, although the medical on feldgrau is very good. I can't believe I cannot find anything listed anywhere on the numbered pieces, just the signals and arty rates. Any help is appreciated.
 
Hey Loosecannon,
Welcome to the forum,
The oval sleeve patches are usually for specialized troops, the F is for Fernsprecher and the ones with the Caduceus are for Sanitätswesen for medical orderlies, yellow is the correct colour for the Caduceus. The only thing I can think of for the numbered ones (and hopefully some one will confirm or correct me) is that they would be for Specialized troops connected to the regiments represented by the number, for example, a stretcher bearer or signals operator, but this is just speculation. The ones on Feldgrau are likely wartime examples. As to value, that is difficult, it would depend largely on how badly some one wanted them. Photo would be nice:)
Best
Gus
 
I have seen all of these insignia before and have many of them myself. They fall into the category of captured warehouse items. They may well have come from the same warehouses as the mint helmets that were sent back to the States to be latter given as premiums to war bond buyers.

All of these insignia are unissued and, other than some mothing gotten later, in mint condition. The light gray oval sleeve patches are for field formations. All the numbers mentioned, I have seen more than once, not including the examples that I have.

Chip

 
Thanks to both Chip and Gus for the details. The photos Chip provided are exactly what I have, right down to the shape of the field cut around the arty piece. These are in better shape with virtually no mothing, but the warehouse thought seems to make sense. So...now the hard part, figuring out how to put a value to them. I am assuming they are not common, because I can't find any listed for sale anywhere on line, excepting the signals patch and the arty piece as pictured by Chip. Any suggestions?
 
Loosecannon,

Though I already gave you some rough evaluations, I can tell you that though these patches are not common, in general, when you find one here in the States, 99% of the time they are going to be exact duplicates of these. So what does this do to the value? Well, they are what they are, but the fact is that they were never issued and there are quite a few others out there just like them. So, in my estimation (even though I own examples), I would say that they are not as valuable as one with some other number.

Regards,
Chip
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top