128th Silver Cap Badge
 

Hello:
A nice 128th cap badge came into my hands last week. I has had the lugs changed from N-S to E-W at some point but it was done really well. There is no maker mark that I can find, and there is no base metal showing through on the high points. The leaves are a brass - green looking colour. All in all it is a really nice badge in the hand.
Cheers
Don

Hi Don,

Gosh that's a beauty, I'm not the least bit jealous...:D:D:D:D

Roy.

Lovely badge. It is another example of an an unrecorded and unusual finish to a CEF badge.

Beautiful badge, Don. Never seen one with the gilt coating before. Thanks for sharing. I've attached pics of my "plain" silver one for comparison.

Cheers, Ian.

Hi Ian, Your "plain" silver badge is plated, not sterling? (Looks like it from the plating on the lugs.)

Hi Bill,

Could be - it doesn't have the look of Sterling and is not marked. I was thinking it might be some other form of silver as there are no wear points to be able to check for an underlying metal but I'll have a closer look at the lugs too when I get the chance.

Cheers, Ian.

Thanks Ian. It may be an extra heavy plating or a double dip, or it may just not have been worn...

Hi Bill,

So I think my bagde may actually be solid silver. I couldn't tell much from the lugs (but they are scratched up with no sign of an underlying metal) so I did a weight check by comparing to a browning copper version of the badge:

Browning copper badge = 39.9 mm x 44.6 mm, weighs 10.6 g
Silver badge = 38.9 mm x 43.9 mm, weighs 12.4 g

So the silver badge is a little smaller but weighs more.

The ratio of the badge weights is 1.17 and the ratio of the density of silver to the density of copper is also 1.17.

I don't think the difference can be explained by the added weight of silver plate as typical plating coatings are 0.004 mm to 0.04 mm (info from several websites). I did a rough calculation and in order to add the weight difference to the silver badge (1.8 g) a silver plating coating would have to be about 0.06-0.07 mm thick.

The above analysis may seem weird to do but I'm an engineer, so it was "fun". I am sorry to say that I am not kidding.:o

Cheers, Ian.

Excellent bit of research. Appling engineering methods to faleristics.

So, being a simple engineer I had to look up the word faleristics. Great word! I'd start telling people I was a "falerist" to describe my hobby but they might get the wrong idea!

Yes, the term evokes rather perverted images....

I wouldn't put too much stock in the ratios of weight and density since you don't know the actual volumes of the badges. One could be thicker than the other.
I'm wondering if badgeman2005 has made the 128th.

Phil

Hi Phil, There are copies of the 128th extant.

Fortunately, badgeman2005's silver badges look like crap and are stamped "Silver".

Cross has this badge documented as silver plate on copper for officers.

Phil