RA Territorial Variant.
 

This is the only RA gunbadge that I have seen like this, is it a worthy variant to add to my collection, I wonder?

Not really a variant as such more an oddity. Simply it’s a badge where a void was missed and it escaped quality control somehow.

A Friday afternoon variant, I like it.

Rob

I thought these were only in white metal? Were they also issued in GM?
Cheers,
Alex

They’re were issued in both WM and GM Alex.

I would categorize it as a faulty badge and not a variant of an un voided type.

regards

It's missed a voiding/piercing operation, this sort of thing happens in a press shop for various reasons.

One of my Friday freaks:

Attachment 267271 Attachment 267272

JT

Many thanks, chaps, I'll give this one a miss then, I'm not getting much by way of encouraging noises about it. I do finally have a Lambourne's marked badge on the way, that should ease my disappointment a little.

For me, the fact that the Arty badge has the missed voiding gives it a desirable curio quality. Not to everyone’s taste though, of course.

JT

Thanks Luke.

Each to their own
 

Each to their own but imoo it’s just not made properly. But then I’m not into the whole variant thing lug number slider length etc etc it’s like a whole other category of collecting to my mind.

Yes, you are quite correct on both counts, the badge that this post started off about, is just a faulty reject, and I'm giving it a miss. I also must agree that collecting badges that all differ in some small way, certainly, is a different form of collecting.

As you probably know, I have 100+ RA gunbadges in a large frame, to many, this may seem to be dozens and dozens of the same badge, but, each to their own, as you have said. My plan is (hopefully) that eventually every single one of these badges will differ in some way from all the others around it.

At the moment, most of these badges are in pairs, partly for better display potential, and partly because I don't need to find quite so many, that way. The latest two badges that I've gone for, may illustrate the sort of thing that I'm constantly searching for.

Badge one, we've discussed before, maker marked, Lambourne's Birmingham, this maker mark seems to add about £2 a letter, to the price of the badge, bit silly? tell me about it. Badge two is a combination of the 1916 unvoided badge, and the 1917 strengthened badge, I do already have a pair of these, but it'll do for a spare, there aren't too many of them around. Silly, as well, I do know that, but, I'm afraid, it's whatever floats your boat !!!

With so many examples, do you have an ultimate aim? Are you seeking simply to accumulate as many variants as possible, or do you perhaps have some other goal in mind such as identifying and recording the manufacturers of as many RA gun badges as possible?

I am not an Arty collector; this badge is well outside my area of interest. I wonder if other members may already have undertaken research into the various makers etc., in the same way Julian has done with the KLR White Horse of Hanover badges?

Regards,

JT

Hi JT, it's just as many variants as possible, really, I've moved onto the Cambs now, of course, and it's the same with them. I've had to go to Cape Town for the latest pair of Cambs variants!