Some people collect a bit of everything, uniforms, helmets, flags, belt buckles, medals. These collectors may end up with full-sized mannequins on which to display their collections. Other people may focus on just one equipment type and collect a wide variety of various nations. A similar type of collector is one who collects by nationality, the most popular being German, American and Japanese, followed closely by British, Russian and French. The ultimate specialists and these collectors do exist are those who collect only certain items from certain nations, sometimes even specific vital pieces of an item. For example, there are specialists who collect and study only United States silver and bronze star awards and their World War II recipients, or the embroidered insignia that were stitched on German uniforms and caps during the same time period. Some people might specialize even further within one of these groups. Such “super specialists” are valuable to the antique collecting community because they can often tell at a glance when something was made and maybe even which company manufactured it.
