I already told the story, Ed, but I will repeat it for relevance to this thread. That bloke in San Francisco (not a collector) had two M15s for sale. This Mecklenburg-Schwerin and a rotten Bavarian. I was, of course, only coveting the former one. Problem: spikes had been switched between the two helmets ! I tried to explain and convince him to switch spikes back. No way. He was stubborn (or perhaps a clever seller...) and refused to believe me. I had two purchase both helmets to recover the precious MS spike, but it was worth it...