SS Marksman's Ring?

[HSSPF Jersey]

Hi everyone

This is my first post on the Axis History Forum. I have been collecting German WW2 militaria for a few years and I have acquired an item that I am having difficulty identifying. Unforunately I am having difficulty taking a quality photo of the item. It is a ring in silver - the 2 markings on the inside of the ring read RZM and .500.

On the face of the ring is a flying eagle (more similar to the Luftwaffe eagle than the state eagle) above a swastika. In the eagle's talons are the SS runes. Around the bottom half of the ring is the SS motto "Meine Ehre Heisst Treue". The sides of the ring are worn but there appears to be a symbol (possibly an eagles head) within a wreath on each side.

A friend advises me that this is an SS Marksman's ring but I can find no reference to this. I was presuming that it was a custom made ring.

Can anyone help me identify this item?

Many thanks

Lee

p.s. I apologise if I have posted this question in the wrong area of the forum! If so, please advise where this should be posted, thanks.

[Phil V]

There is no such thing as an SS Marksmans ring.

The ring you have described sounds like a fantasy ring or possible a private purchase ring.

If it is a private purchase ring the chances of it being stamped with an RZM mark is remote however.

Hard to say categorically though without some pics.

P

[HSSPF Jersey]

Hi Phil

Many thanks for your reply. I suspected that this was not an official SS Ring. Can you (or anyone) please confirm to me the difference between a private purchase and a fantasy item? I am presuming that a fantasy item is a post-war creation, whereas the private purchase would be akin to the many Waffen-SS Death's head rings you see, not official but still authentic to the period.

Many thanks

Lee

[Jay Gillespie]

Like Phil, it is very difficult and also in a lot of cases not appropriate to comment on the authenticity of something without either holding it in hand or at least looking at good pictures. In your case that strill is true, but some basic comment might be in order. Yes, there are a lot of fantasy SS items, rings included, out in the market. Most have been the efforts of someone's creative mind. Your ring at least sounds like such a creation where the "maker" included just a bit of about everything that would cause a person to want to believe it is "right." The RZM mark is the most glaring point. SS rings don't have RZM marks. Just ask yourself "why would a ring be stamped .500 when almost without question everything that is a silver content is made with a lot more silver coontent and marked a whole lot higher?" And for that matter they also don't mix services if the eagle is a Luftwaffe type eagle. Throwing the SS motto on it was in all likelihood an adjunct add-on again to put just enough of about everything into it to make someone willing to make the mental jump to "it's got to be good."

[Phil V]

Hi Phil

Many thanks for your reply. I suspected that this was not an official SS Ring. Can you (or anyone) please confirm to me the difference between a private purchase and a fantasy item? I am presuming that a fantasy item is a post-war creation, whereas the private purchase would be akin to the many Waffen-SS Death's head rings you see, not official but still authentic to the period.

Many thanks

Lee

Fantasy rings are modern rings made rings that are not reporductions of period rings - such that you would see bikies and the like wear. Large skulls, swastikas, SS symbols and mottos etc. Such items are usually very garrish and marked with RZM or silver content marks.

Private purchase rings are period rings that people of the time had made privately for themselves or for select groups.

The only official ring of the period was the Totenkopf which is commonly (and incorrectly) nowadays referred to as the "Honour Ring".

I would like to see some posted scans of your ring however. I can assist with a better guess then.

Hope this helps.

P

[HSSPF Jersey]

Hi Phil & Jay & everyone!

I have finally managed to get some good pictures of the ring in question as requested. Can you please re-confirm your original thoughts that this is a fantasy item? If so, I still think it's an interesting piece nonetheless.

Any idea what the symbols on the sides of the ring were supposed to be? Eagles heads?

Many thanks everyone

Lee

[Phil V]

100% pure fantasy item.

Slightly modelled on the so called "higher SS leader" style fantasy ring.

P

[HSSPF Jersey]

Thanks Phil, much appreciated.

[valsente]

Hello Guys,
I wish to dig up this thread that I found searching by Google about a similar ring that I've in my hands. Here below you'll find some pics of it:





It seems to be old enough for being a real period item even if some doubt could comes with the presence of a RZM mark. But what is very interesting is the history of this ring which has been told me from an a friend of mine whose grandfather was a pilot in the Italian Fascist Air Force ( RSI ) after September,8th 1943. He told me that his grandfather showed him this ring when he was a young boy in the fifties, telling him that he received it from Skorczeny as a remembering gift.
Not only, but the same ring has been published in an article about a nazi "treasure" found on the Topliz lake in Austria:



Now we could suppose that a lot of this rings were made for Luftwaffe officers or SS pilot officers who could buy them privately. Surely they were not official rings but probably worn with proud by men who had not received a Totenkopfring yet. In fact Skorczeny got his TKR only after Mussolini's release.
What do you think about this idea?
Thanks in advance

Val

[John G.]

HSSPF Jersey,
Welcome to the forum.....These "SS Rings" have been around for at least 30/40 years....they are as FAKE as the Hitler's Diarys. There is NO Skorzeny connection, if one was fished out of Lake Toplitz it was thrown there by a disappointed collector when he found out he'd been screwed! No unofficial ring would be of 50% silver and none would have an RZM mark....sorry to disappoint....but these are total JUNK.....just like 90% of the Skull, Rune, DAK, Anti-partisan, etc. fake rings are.

As I've stated before.....rings are VERY easy to reproduce (or fabricate from one's imagination)....avoid them unless they are coming directly from a veterans estate.....and even then, look at them with suspicion!

Best of luck.....
John G.

Valsente.....sorry, but the Skorzeny story is false.....these are "fantasy" rings......either your friend is fibbing or his Grandfather was telling "Tall tales" (as Grandfathers occassionally do)......the "Nazi Treasure" link is also total Bull crap....probably meant to enhance the story (but obviously phoney to anyone who knows his "Nazi stuff"....sorry!

[Curlycheese]

There is no such thing as an SS Marksmans ring.

The ring you have described sounds like a fantasy ring or possible a private purchase ring.

If it is a private purchase ring the chances of it being stamped with an RZM mark is remote however.

Hard to say categorically though without some pics.

P

Ok, Ive Found the same ring amongst my grandfathers posessions, it doesn't have the RMZ marking or .500, it does however have hall markings of a lion facing left, a feline head, the letter C or G, and a head facing left. as well as a makers mark of JJP in a sort of shield stamp.
Im pretty sure those markings mean its .925 silver, made in london in either 1938 or 1977.
Any info on who the Maker JJP is would be helpful.

[John G.]

Doesn't make any differance who made it....it's still NOT an original ring.....(except at"Germaniainternational").....
John G.

[Curlycheese]

Thanks for the help.........