This is an incredible SS piece, belonging in the formative, early years of SS-VT, the 1937-1939 years (read on).  The specimen is a nearly flawless SS Officer Visor for the newly formed Waffen-SS.  It is a textbook Erel visor, in nearly flawless condition (only minor mold on the sweat-band is indicative of age - the exterior is near flawless.  Fine quality doeskin, non-zinc (probably cupal with a silver over-spray) insignia with just the faintest wear to the highest points.  Bill is very clean, chin cord is "fused" into place, having lowered off of the velvet band with decades of sitting.  Bill shows beautiful broacade "bread on" fingerprint from the cord resting on the black lacquer paint.  Interior is classic Erel with NO extra holes, a very tight fitting unmolested interior, etc.  Buttons are actually sew-in and SS marked with 155/38 stamped.

Now, most collectors (and even me) will look twice at an SS Visor by ANY manufacturer - 90% of them were so-called "contract" pieces with NO trademarking by the manufacturer.  The only exceptions are early visors, and sometimes, visors with colored piping.  This caused me to look very closely at this visor to try to spot a "Frankenstein" visor (visors that are re-assembled, mostly in Europe, from Army Visors in the modern era to fool collectors).  When I did this, I discovered an absolutely stunning detail that is not visible to the naked eye or the fingertips, or even to magnification ... the black velvet band is FACTORY overlayed on top of green "army" velvet.  So this hat was somehow constructed at the factory for use as an Army visor, and then used to produce an SS Visor BEFORE insignia were added and the hat shipped to a customer.  

After discovering this, the whole hat made sense.  Produced in 1938 or 1939 (based upon the button dates), it would have been used by an SS-VT or SS-TKV officer, probably BEFORE the invasion of Poland.  That is, during the very first period after 17 August 1938 when "Hitler decreed that the SS military formations were to be placed at the "disposal" of the army in time of war (The Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War 1939–1945).  This hat proves that Erel DID make at least some SS Visors for use in the early years, before the "contract" visors came into play.