These are two lanyards, the pattern of which I had not seen before.  This subject came up as a result of a similar one being posted on the P.38 Forum.  I was suspicious of  it for two main reasons.  I had not seen one like it before and Per Mathisen from Norway said he had not seen one like it either.

 

The one on the P.38 Forum appeared to be made of a different color webbed material and used different color thread than the known examples.  However, most of that discrepancy now appears to have been a function of the color being off in the digital picture.  The "P.38" stamp on the leather had been both metal and ink stamped.  That made me suspicious, also.

 

A fellow P.38 collector sent me the two lanyards pictured below for my personal examination.  After looking at these very carefully, I cannot say for sure that they are bad.  It is still a mystery to me why, if these were period done, more have not shown up.  But that, alone, is not enough to call an item a reproduction.  It is possible this lanyard was made post-war and the P.38 nomenclature was still used on it.

 

In the end where the metal ring is, there is a reinforcement stitched around the metal ring and between the two pieces of webbed material.  On the examples that I was familiar with, that reinforcement was a piece of tanned leather.  On the subject examples, the reinforcement is very hard, almost brittle.  There was speculation that it could be a piece of plastic.  That, alone, would have make it suspicious.  However, I think it could be a piece of rawhide which would be very hard and brittle.  I can't be sure without seeing a larger piece of it but I can only see a small piece of the side on these examples.

 

They have features which I think are correct but have features that are different than previously accepted examples. Bottom line is that I can't say for sure that the lanyards are correct Third Reich period done but I can't say for sure they are not, either.