Bill, you mean that little black blobby thing wasn't a '9'?
You're right of course, s/b "S28" for General List.
There is an S29, which is the RCEME 'unicorn' badge. This is a numbering oddity that pops up in a couple of places, as this badge follows the RCEME 'shield' badge (S15). Same for 14th Cdn. Light Horse (C39), followed by 14th Cdn. Hussars (C61). There is some odd mixing of chronological numbering (like the above) vs. badge type numbering. As well, for numbering things like the buckled annulus badges, in some places (e.g. Cape Breton High'rs, M137) the earlier buckled type has the "a" number while in others (e.g. Sault Ste. Marie, M78), it is the other way round.
Added to this, for most regiments badges are sequentially grouped and numbered, but for others, most notably 1949 pattern changes for Kings Own Calgary, Cape Breton High'rs, etc., they are in wholly different places in the book. This makes sense if most of the research was done before 1949, then the army came along with a pile of revised badges that just got stuck in, but the revised edition was printed in 1985, so go figure. More "LOOOSOF" from me -- after the first edition (blue cover) was produced, Mazeas just fit the variants and additional badges into the numbering he already had set up, rather than renumbering the badges for the revised edition.
As for would the world's greatest ever Canadian badge reference sell? Hmmm, 7 copies at least
. I agree that there is so much minutia given that we are dealing with manufactured items where day-to-day variables influence so much, there is only so much 'picayuneness' even I could tolerate. There must have been a lot of "Hey, Chuck, I'm running out of 025 brass sheet and I've got another 237 to do yet, is 017 okay?" going on. But where there is a definite, reliable, definable difference (w.m., brass, bronze and copper for Halifax Rifles, say, or the comments about blackened badges vs. other versions of same as a result of unit redesignation) it's not a stretch to include these, or at least document the metals/finishes used like Charlton did with their "composition" line. Same goes for manufacturers.
Where we could go with officers badges is beyond me -- I can't afford very many
