Officially made or home cast?
 

I surfed onto this Dental Corp badge.
Thinking, not probably produced by, say, Gaunt, so is this a home cast job?
Bruce.

Just one of many reproduction NZ badges being offered on E-Bay at the moment.

Very much like some ''display'' badges made in the 1980's and sold by an Invercargill(New Zealand) collector /medal mounter/fraudster .I got duped into buying a few . In hindsight the best $80 I ever spent as I never wanted to make that mistake again, and made me think before I bought ever since . The old adage 'learn from your mistakes '' is tried and true!! I ended up cutting off the lugs and binning them .Full stop.

That same guy was featured on a TV show around that time.
 

Disappointing as your experience was, the experience of another person that prompted the on air investigation, revealed what an awful individual this guy really was.

I've long now forgotten the details of the original complaint, but it involved botched medal mounting jobs, not returning medals when, because of long delays in starting the work, customers sought their return. There was even some suggestion at the time that the guy was selling on medals that people had entrusted to him to mount.

I was bitten badly myself one time when I wanted both my Great Uncles Great War trio court mounted and also my Fathers WW2 trio.
The chap at the Tawa militaria shop recomended a local guy so that is when the nightmare began. A dreadful job and a experience.

Anyway, that was then and this is now and a much higher level of professionalisim exists these days, but one should always be wary that dodgy behaviour still stalks our trust in our fellow man.

Bruce.