[sean michael cronin]

I can remember seeing boxes of Gaunt's B'ham badges for sale at a pound each at an arms fair in Leeds years ago, the gilding metal colour seemed O.K. copper/brass, but the white metal was very hard and lacked the creamy silver of good badges, also they seemed to have a lot of fold lines and mis punching voids. At the same time a lot of badges appeared, unmarked but the brass was very yellow and the white metal very dark and in possible to shine to a good luster. As a rule I would describe re-pro brass as Indian gold coloured, and gilding metal as Rose gold coloured. apart from all the dodgy stuff of today, theres also all the unofficial stuff made in two wars, and sold as replacements at rail stations and the like, also the certain badges mentioned in Kipling and King made of yellow brass. Cheers Sean.