Royal Marine Labour Corps,lot of money for a fake
 

Hi all, I’ve been watching this item https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304047247835 and I’m presuming as the description said it’s a copy , not one of the standard fakes but one non the less ,unless I’m mistaken ( in that case I’m going to crawl away and cry !) seems a lot to spend on a copy, so guessing either bidders believed it ok or thought they’d never own a genuine one so take this instead :eek:

Gerard

The seller is a forum member. His description clearly says ‘‘it is a copy !!’’

Either the buyer was not vigilant enough to discern that what was offered was clearly not correct for genuine RMLC nor note the honest description, or, they were willing to spend a lot on a inventive gap filler.

Thanks Luke, as i thought also, and as you say and as i mentioned,clearly stated as a copy, I just had a little doubt in the back of my mind it was good for a split second

Gerard

Alas it’s a standard RM/RMLI cap badge, apparent from the laurel voiding, which has had the crown/bugle cut away and the ship from a fake RMLC badge attached. Finally an overly long brass strip (or cut down slider) has been added as strengthening.

Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to create that badge. I wonder what Mr, Whittle bought it as originally? Did he believe it was real and paid a lot of money also.

His honesty in his description is to his credit and actually with the final price hasnt turned out half bad for him.

Lets see how long it is until it turns up on a dealers list as 100% genuine for £500. !!!

Its Frankenstein construction reminded me of some of the ‘Ron collection’ badges that have appeared on eBay over the last 18 months.

Perhaps made by the same hand for someone who didn’t want to pay the circa £800 a genuine badge would cost. Who knows.

Two hundred and sixty quid!:eek:

Did every member of the Royal Marine Labour Corps wear the badge or was it struck and issued in a very limited number?

I seem to recall that the Labour Battalion was a rather large unit and medals do frequently appear to them on the market, but seldom the original cap badge.

This may be of interest https://rmhistorical.com/files/content/RMLC.pdf

Thank you. That was a good read.

RMLC
 

Excellent item, thanks Luke, it explains why the badge is scarce.

Rob

When i made my RM collection i paid £27 for a grenade and globe and laurel RMA badge. That because you hardly ever see restrikes of this badge for some reason. Doesnt explain this RMLC badge however, because there are plenty of the non voided copies out there. So maybe its just the voids that made it 'worth' that much. Wonder if it started off at that price ?

Sorry for the sideways aspect

Start price was £10

The likelihood is someone mistakenly thought it genuine since for significantly less all the component badges/parts could be purchased and a skilled person sought and paid to make another at a fraction of the final price.

Steve Bosley has one for £1,500.00 on Regimental Badges