Prussian EM M95

chinstrap

chinstrap

Active member
Just acquired this for a very good price,as I start collecting pickelhaubes for the second time! It's in excellent condition and all original as far as I can tell. I've looked at a lot of material on the forum about chinstraps and this seems right - dyed on one side only, rounded corners on buckles, cracks to the leather in the right places etc. Two brass grommetted holes for the wappen loops. The definition on the wappen is very good. Kokarden look original. The unit stamps are there on the rear visor but too faint to read, although I've tried in different lighting conditions-any tips on how to decipher faint stamps? There are some initials scratched inside the front visor - Maybe A M I, or A M and a vertical mark.

Patrick











 
Sometimes, you can read faint markings better if you just wet the end of your finger and rub it on the mark gently. Does not always work but sometimes the moisture brings out the faint mark. :-k
 
Joe, thanks. I'll try it in the daylight tomorrow, although bad weather here means the days aren't much brighter than the nights at the moment!

Patrick
 
Very nice, solid helmet. Congratulations!

I have a few helmets that have faded marks. Sometimes I can read the mark only in sun light and on others, only under fluorescent light. You might try that.

John :bravo:
 
Very nice one, Patrick. Congratulations.
The trick suggested by Joe to decipher faint markings often works. If not you can also take a photo (with a good camera, not a cell phone), and use a picture editing program; by changing brightness, contrast and colour saturation you can often reveal a marking that is not visible. This happened to me just 2 days ago; I was able to make out, for the first time, some writing inside a Mecklemburg helmet I have been owning for a long time.
Bruno
 
Thanks for all the positive comments. It's was dusted before I took the photos but that's all I'm going to do. I'm delighted with it.

Thanks also for the tips on deciphering the stamps. The wet finger trick hasn't worked, and although I've tried Bruno's suggestion and played with Photoshop, I've had no success so far, although I think I can get better photos to experiment with. Slightly more success in looking at things in different types of light. There is a small rectangle in which the first digit appears to be a T. It seems to have the vertical and cross piece of the T you get with this typeface, but with short verticals hanging off each end of the cross bar. I think there may be two digits and/ or numerals in the rectangle to the right of the T but I can't read them yet.
To the right of the rectangle there are two vertical lines, which might be 11, with another digit after the 11, which doesn't have any obvious shape. Any ideas? I haven't checked the threads on marks but all I can think of at the moment is T is for Train.

Anyway, I will take more pictures and try Bruno's suggestion again. I will also try in different lights outside when the weather improves.

Patrick
 
A nice helmet Patrick!

If the stamp is in a rectangle, it could be a depot stamp. Any chance the first stamp is a 'B'?
 
Congratulations that is a classic example of the Prussian M 95. Very nice! :thumb up:
 
Thanks to everybody for your positive comments. I bought the helmet on eBay UK for a price that was so low that I thought there was something wrong with it and I was the only viewer who was missing the problem, so I was really pleased with it when it arrived. Maybe the potential competition was broke after Christmas? Nice to get a bargain! I haven't been able to decipher the markings any better. I'm still sure, though, that the first digit is a T.

Anyway, it's whetted my appetite to add to the pickelhaube collection. However, I'm not allowed to let my helmet collection, which is largely British dress helmets, spread beyond my study to the rest of the house (a problem I share with other members) so I'm going to have to be creative about using the space I've got!

Patrick
 
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