[Wooffy]

Like some, my collecting (or hoarding as my other half would say!) has led to me having multiple examples of the same object in my collection. In some cases there are clear and significant differences between the examples, typically these include the things that you would anticipate: different maker marks, different fastenings, detectable changes in areas of the overall design and even changes in materials and finishes applied.

As these Covid times still seem to progress, like others I have had some extended time to consider items in the collection. So in browsing through things and comparing what I have to each other and also to images of other examples, I have come to the realisation that some of what I have always considered to be identical examples of the same object are not so. The biggest revelation being the discovery of at least 2 dies used to make cap badges - one with a flaw in it which is repeated in examples I own and examples I have seen, whilst the other clearly doesn't have the same flaw.

As neither are marker marked it is probable/possible that the two different dies are were used by different manufacturers. Although this is more a working assumption than anything that I can prove.

So the question is this - does a hard to spot die flaw, which is repeated on different examples, make one a variant of the other?