12th Australian Infantry Regiment officer's hat badge *** FAKE ***
 

12th Australian Infantry Regiment (1900 to 12) officer's hat badge of dubious authenticity.

eBay link

I have spoken to some other very knowledgeable Australian collectors and we all agree that this badge appears to be one of the ones that came out of Melbourne a few years ago.

A certain unscrupulous person (and also sadly a member of this forum) has attempted to add enamel to several authentic Other Rank hat badges to make them into super expensive ($1000+) officer hat badges! The badge is real but an attempt has been made to alter it to be a more expensive and much rarer badge by adding enamel to it.

Here is another altered badge for comparison. It also looks very new.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...-authentic.jpg

Here's an authentic badge for comparison.

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...1/image001.jpg

Mick

ps

Other dodgy enamel badges also seen include the 49th Battalion (Stanley Regiment) and possibly an 11th Light Horse (VMR)

Yikes! An expensive fake! Someone got stung for $510 for this fake!