Solid silver cap badges
 

Hello everybody,
Excuse my poor English,
I'm an old french cap badges collector :D
I would like to know what do you think about "solid silver cap badges", stamped on the rear "silver".

I hope for your help.
Thank you in advance.

Jean-Paul

Hello Jean-Paul,

In general it would depend where they have come from and if they were maker marked.

There are a large number of copies going around (there are loads on ebay) which tend to be marked silver, genuine silver badges as a generalisation (but not strictly as a rule) can be found with the following traits.

a. No markings at all

b. Stamped sterling

c. Hallmarked

The last 2 categories usually are also marked with the makers name/initials.

I'm sure that some genuine cap/collar badges may also be simply marked silver (certainly there are plenty of sweetheart badges so marked) but from my experience for cap/collar badges its not the norm, hence my opening remark.

Additionally there are silver plated cap badges, either with no markings, or the makers name and sometimes (particularly with Gaunt badges) marked P.

If you seek advice on a particular badge/badges may I suggest that you post pictures of the front and rear.

Kind Regards,

HAMMO2440

Thank you very much Ammo 2440. It's very fast and very kind.

Indeed, there are many "silver" on ebay sites.
I try to be careful. Your comments are very instructive. I have several "Hallmarked" but I was wary of iscription "Silver".
Good night. :)
Jean Paul.

PS: I live near Arras and Vimy is the explanation of my interest cap badges WWI.
Many Commonwealth soldiers died here. Respect.

Jean-Paul,

A pleasure,

Good hunting,

Kind Regards,

HAMMO2440

Silver Cap Badges
 

Good afternoon gentlemen
As someone that is only interested in military badges, particularly those relating to the Royal Marines, but who is not a collector or in any shape or form an expert, I have found this thread to be of some interest.
I was unaware until recently that silver, either solid or plated, badges existed.
It has always been my misconception that they were either brass, nickel/brass, economy Bakelite, and more recently anodised (Staybrite) and bronze effect.
When I joined the RM in 1959 all the buttons, badges, belt buckles etc., on greatcoats, blue uniform and 1944 pattern webbing were brass, and vast quantities of Bluebell (not Brasso) were needed to reach the required standard.
It was not until some later stage of training that Staybrite replaced brass and the 1958 pattern equipment replaced the '44 pattern.
I came across a KC "silver" RM cap badge on eBay recently and queried its validity, perhaps wrongly.
What an informative and user friendly site this is! :)

Hello Jean-Paul,

Welcome to the forum and very best of luck with your collecting.

HAMMO2440 has given some good advice and I think the fakes with such markings as mentioned on eBay have been discussed on many occasions here.

From my own limited experience the markings I tend to see are either the fully hallmarked examples, the letter 's' (denoting silver) or the letter 'p' (denoted silver plate), also I have come across 'sterling'.

Attached are a some examples of the first three markings and all on the same pattern of badge which I hope will be of interest.

Cheerio,

Roy

Roy,
What a great post.
Thank you.
Ken