Chuck In Oregon Wrote:Hi Mike
Welcome to the forum. It's a good place to learn, exchange views and generally enjoy the hobby. Sounds like you're going to add a lot here.
Chuck
Back to the topic at hand... The provinance on these items is a tough one. I saw this one go across eBay and I logged the photos into my keeper files. I disagree with the comment that the star on this one is "Afghanish". The typical junk stars (green) that are seen on the modern field headgear and all over the market today tend to be a pretty consistant pea green. This appears to be a darker green over raw steel. This is very similar to wartime stars I have viewed and one I have on a wartime ushanka. I will conceed that this star might have been repainted and buffed off the high parts or maybe I have not seen the full gamut of postwar stars. Still, this is my experience. I think the star is possibly good.
The buckle that started this thread if original at all, is at best a reconstruction job, that is an original converted buckle found sans star, with a replacement star added. How can you tell? Take a close look at the German buckle, it's ground dug. You can see where the oxidation of the Aluminum has erroded the edges of the buckle.
So that leaves the only possiblity of originality to be a ground dug buckle that had evidence of hat star conversion (ie original holes in the face) with a possible wartime star added to repair it.
Mike
