Here's mine, supposedly found in a hedge row in the sixties, with a body still wearing it. It came out of a museum in France. I kept it in my shop for a couple of years because the smell was so bad. It wasn't a decaying flesh smell, ive never smelled anything like it. It's with my collection now and finally there's no weird smell. No idea what the white is on it. Was cheap enough that I'm not out anything to speak of so real or not I'm ok. I've never had another helmet put off a weird odor like this one and I have another in similar condition