[davidwyke]

Hi Chaps

Several more interesting posts there!

First off, the blue/green tint which GTB mentions. Yes, that is present on many of the Gaunt restrikes, but by no means all.

As regards the RHG button specifically, this is one which has sparked debate in the past.

As Rob says, the broken/worn die used for the Gaunt backmark is another feature which appears on many of the restrikes but, again, not all. The problem is that when they manufactured the restrikes they appear to have simply used the backmark dies which they were using for all button production. One, or more, of these was obviously worn or defective. Unfortunately, just to confuse things, it's not unknown to find genuine buttons (usually anodised) with this same backmark feature.

To be honest I'm not sure if the RHG buttons are restrikes or not but I'm inclined to side with Roger and think they are probably genuine. Also, bear in mind that they were worn until 1969 and the restrike buttons were produced within a couple of years of that. Would they really need to reproduce buttons of such a recent vintage? Perhaps they were just selling off now obsolete stock?

David
PS.......

Roger had already covered some of my points by the time I submitted this!!!