Jewish Chaplain cap badge
 

Hi,
I have been looking at Jewish Chaplain's cap badges from the WWII period and would like some knowledgeable input about these two different dies. see picture

1. The bulk of the badges I see for sale or listed appear to be from this die with very simplified oak and laurel leaves, almost childlike. Also the jewels in the crown are simplified and the lines of the Mogen David star are very thick. These badges all appear to have looped lugs.

2. A genuine WWII badge (in my opinion) with very ornate oak and laurel leaves, proper jewels to crown and thin lines to the star. The badge is on blades as expected for an OSD badge.

So my request is, is the first badge just anouther poorly made badge OR an actual fake? Maybe a Martin Marsh copy?

Any opinions appreciated.

Steven

Others , more knowledgeable , may be able to give definitive answer but there are repro badges out there.

https://www.regalia-company.com/brit...cap-badge.html

NB : From website:
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Hi Steven

My badge knowledge could be written on the back of a postage stamp, but I have a friend who worked for a UK firm back in the 60's.

I bounced your photo off him and he says that the one you are doubtful about looks as if it was cut by a pantograph and has no real "life" to it (especially the oak leaves).

Remember this is not a collector speaking but someone who used to see a wide range of material produced in his time.

Hope this helps and that you get an answer from someone who can address other aspects of the badge.

Your observations are correct Steven.

Whilst the picture of the RAChD (Jewish) badge in the Marsh catalogue leaves a lot to be desired (like many) it is still possible to pinpoint telltale features of the die used.

Note the very arched right side of the crown, the outline of oak wreath, no acorns in the oak wreath are common features shared with your ‘questionable’ badge. Plus the overall detail quality as you commented is almost childlike, another common Marsh fake attribute.

Lastly if you look closely at the jewels in the crown’s band I think you’ll find they’re not properly formed and almost ‘hollow’ in parts which is another modern fake die hallmark.

Another acid test is the eBay search! And alas there’s a lot of badges from this die listed, many very modern looking. Not what you’d expect for Jewish Chaplains.

So, in my belief you’ve hit the nail on the head with your assessment. The questionable badge is indeed the Marsh die fake.

Thanks everyone for such speedy feedback and Luke, for confirming that this does appear to be a Marsh fake.

To note, I have searched the forum for Jewish Chaplain's badges and do see this fake item coming up where the owner of such is convinced they are 'good'

Maybe some of us may need to revisit our collections. I believe WWII original Jewish Chaplains badges are quite rare in fact.

Steven

Apparently there were 17 Jewish chaplains in WWI and I assume the numbers for WWII are similar.

RAChD is one of my fields of interest, I manage to find a Christian denomination cap badge on ebay that I would happily add to my collection roughly once every two months. Let's say that 1% of the soldiers were Jewish (30.000 Jews out of 2.9 million British soldiers by 1945), that would suggest a genuine badge could turn up every 99 times two months or 16.5 years. I'm not going to hold my breath.

When the badge design was created (I paid for the file to be digitised from records office) in 1940 there was only 1 senior Jewish Staff chaplain (Dayan Gollop) and a couple of others although obviously they were expanding slightly. I don't know exactly how many there were, but as Luc says, extrapolating the data from the numbers of Jewish personnel gives a ball park figure of requirements.