[Bill A]

Hello Robert, In 1982 Reginal Cox published an incredible reference titled Military Badges of the British Empire 1914-18. At the time it was one of the first fully illustrated, comprehensive references. Cox included a section on Canadian artillery badges, which unfortunately turned out to include a large number of fakes and forgeries. A Canadian, Maj. W.T. McHugh (RCA retired) compiled a correction which Cox issued as an ERRATA supplement. In the ERRATA, McHugh identifed three types of the CFA battery badges. The main difference for the many CFA batteries was the central disc / wheel of the field gun which has the number (or in some cases an abbreviation or device attributing the badge as say, the Coburg Heavy Battery or the University of Toronto Battery, etc). These centre discs could be applied to any one of three base badges, which were classified as Type A, B, and C, depending on the design. Type A was a field gun, no wreath or ribbon. Type B was the field gun with maple leaves "wreathes" either side of the gun, but no ribbon below the bottom motto, and Type C, which had the gun, wreathes and, below the motto, a tied bow. These McHugh types became the standard references for the battery badge types, but has fallen out of use.
The CFA badges have been the subject of much attention from the reproduction artists. An early set of fakes was made and appeared on the market in the 1980s, with tangs (the Canadian term for the bend over blades used for attachment) that were wider than the authentic issue. Today, these badges are almost indistinguishable from originals. One way to check these it to make sure it was one of the Batteries that had badges made. The 13th, 36th, and then 49 to 53, 55, 56,57, and 60 to79 are recorded as having badges. Any other number should be treated with suspicion, and needs to be verified.
About 15 years ago an trophy maker near Ottawa called Dracks started making copies. His creations included a whole series of officers' overlays for the Battery numbers as well as the three different types. These copies can be distinguished in several ways, the primary one being the use of lugs on the badges. The Drack's badges were also one piece but the finish was so good that you need to examine the foot of the lugs with magnification to determine if they are one piece castings or were affixed after the stamping. It should be noted that the Drack's badges have been purposely aged, some have had the lugs replaced with tangs and some have been artificially aged. There are some other characteristics of the Drack's badges, but the net effect of his copies and the earlier fakes has messed the market.