RASC AA KC OR's cap badge (in gilt)

[Fatboy Ken]

RASC KC OR's cap badge "Brass"

As has been expected by some of you guy's, a "brass" cap badge, identical to the Anodised Aluminium KC RASC cap badge has surfaced, and it came to me, .......... !!

Have a good look and leave your comments, either here or in a pm to me, Hagwalter & the rest of you were right, it is only a matter of time.

Points to note:- I bought this badge for £2.99 as a copy

Ken (The Fatboy)

(all 3 badges are together, for your comments & observations)

P7180903.jpg P7180905.jpg P7180900.jpg P7180908.jpg P7180912.jpg P7180940.jpg

[Mike_2817]

A modern copy by the likes of S.R.S. and touted on eBay as 'Officail M.O.D. Contractor'

http://www.arbeia.demon.co.uk/srs/co.../desc_c.htm#a1

These badges are of a softer more yellow brass mix.

[hagwalther]

Originally Posted by Fatboy Ken

RASC KC OR's cap badge "Brass"

As has been expected by some of you guy's, a "brass" cap badge, identical to the Anodised Aluminium KC RASC cap badge has surfaced, and it came to me, .......... !!

Have a good look and leave your comments, either here or in a pm to me, Hagwalter & the rest of you were right, it is only a matter of time.

Points to note:- I bought this badge for £2.99 as a copy

Ken (The Fatboy)

(all 3 badges are together, for your comments & observations)

Attachment 66669 Attachment 66670 Attachment 66671 Attachment 66672 Attachment 66673 Attachment 66674

Hi Ken,

You will have to look pretty close here to see if the A/A badge and the one shown came from the same die. While you may be able to do this with photographic images with a hand held point and shoot a far better way will be to examine large images from a scanner.

Failing that you will need some good loupes of 10x or 20x power - get some from eBay from a China outlet - quite cheap and more than adequate.

What you need to look for is a die flaw in both types of badges - this will confirm the source.

BUT

Only the last non A/A badges will have the same flaws as the first A/A badges as the flaw may have occured or grown (yes, flaws do grow) at the end of the dies life.

Now, just to really throw you (but don't tell anyone) is that some genuine A/A badges were made from the previously existing white metal/gilding metal dies but I ain't going to tell you which ones cos I'm mean.

.. and anyway, I only know of one occurance where this was officially documented. And that's in the book....

If you can find common flaws post 'em up.

Regards

Chris

[Mike_2817]

Cos you want us to buy your book you mean

[hagwalther]

Originally Posted by Mike_2817

Cos you want us to buy your book you mean

Er, Yep...

The other thing to consider here is that although Ken is working his butt of looking for common die flaws in the non A/A badge and the A/A badge and if the two badges actually reconcile then when was the A/A badge actually made?

1952 or last week? That is the difficult thing to establish in cases like this.

I think they are pretty recent (in terms of things) in that the A/A version has not been found in older collections. There are a few other pointers too suggesting modern manufacture but I'll keep them to self for now.

Regards

Chris

[Fatboy Ken]

At this rate i'll not need to buy the book !! maybe I could buy half the book !!??
(only kidding) lol

I'll be checking the images, in close up, over the weekend and will get back to you I'll concentrate on the front of them first.

I'm of the opinion that these are all Fakes/Copies, and will be treating them as such. I have found a large number of similarities between all 3 badges, and they are (exactly) the same in each badge, as Hagwalter said I need to get extremely close shots, so I'll make an album for these shots for you guy's to review.

I'm gonna keep these badges, and place them in a frame together, and they'll be marked up as "Fake/Copies of the Anodised Aluminium KC Badge"

Talk later guy's gotta get ready for work tonight !!

Ken

[hagwalther]

Ken,

As well as looking for die flaws I always check the shape of letters and gaps between them when trying to reconcile badges. This is a pretty good indication of badges coming from the same die as is often easy to spot but can be changed over time due to polishing.

If voids exist in the badge then check the shape and size especially the smaller voids. This is usually the easiest check and is not affected by polishing.

re: dodgy A/A badges - there are a few checks to make but are of a destructive nature i.e. will damage the badge if carried out. While there are few fake A/A badges (plenty of unofficial commissions though) they can be found by checking for an anodic crust. Fakers of A/A badges will colour the aluminium but will not (for the main) anodise it. If no anodic crust then the badge has to be by definition a fake.

If I remember these KC RASC badge did not look like thay had been anodised but I did not actually check (remember, descructive test) as they were not mine.

Regards

Chris

[hagwalther]

Originally Posted by Mike_2817

A modern copy by the likes of S.R.S. and touted on eBay as 'Officail M.O.D. Contractor'

http://www.arbeia.demon.co.uk/srs/co.../desc_c.htm#a1

These badges are of a softer more yellow brass mix.

Mike,

Do you think that this is the source of these A/A badges? If Ken can reconcile his A/A badge with his non A/A version and then reconcile both back to an example sold by the British Badge Company:

http://www.arbeia.demon.co.uk/srs/co.../desc_c.htm#a1

then it looks like we have found a source of iffy A/A badges.

Wonder what else turns up?

Busy weekend for you Ken...

Regards

Chris

[Mike_2817]

SRS, Ardeia, BBC, British Badge Company - All the same firm.