8th recce..
I wished I had bought the badge. Heavily polished and altered badges have become an interest of mine for some time.I have several CAC,RCA and RCR cap badges that have been obviously intentionally altered by the owners and one with provenance. An RCR cap badge that was given to me by my next door neighour when I was a youth(and worn by me as the CSM of the RCR Cadet Corps) was intentionally polished on a wheel by the soldier and he told me this was common practice among his peers as well.
As Bill says alot of these were done on wheels as they were not in use long enough to be worn down during polishing.
Artillery and CAC cap badges seem to be some of the favourites of the polishing wheel treatment.The CAC Badges(i have seven of them) are very selectively done with the details of the tank being polished with the rest of the badge left alone.I even have one with the tank polished smooth and the words RECCE T.C. engraved on the tank.The arty badges also seem to be a favourite one with heavy polishing and even several I,ve seen with a Dutch or Italian coin sweated onto the wheel of the gun.The most common RCR alteration seems to be to grind the rays of the star completly flat and then polish to a mirror finish like the one I got from my neighbour in the 70's.
I,ve stopped looking at them as damaged badges and see them as actual theatre worn artifacts which of course they are and to me anyway mean more than the bags of mint ersatz unissued examples that sat well into the 60's at the RCOC depot in London or Borden.
I,ll take all you,ve got.....
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