Hi STM,
KLR has found the army orders which states the reason for and lists the badges which were officially made in brass under WD sanction and there are no all wm badges on this list. I'm sure when he comes online he will post a picture of the document which states the WD's reason on this thread.
Gaylor's list was compiled from badges held in his and others collections and can in no way be considered official and indeed I'm sure in those days many of them must have held near one off pieces, the fact this list was compiled in the 1960's would make these badges unlikely to be restrikes IMO. However badges on his list but not the army's are unofficial and not true economy badges with the amounts produced of those unofficial ones in the Gaylor list are likely to be minuscule... when have you ever seen a genuine all brass RDF? That badge incidentally seems to have not been officially produced in all brass due to the lower numbers required by Irish regiments, there seems to be no hard fast rule in which BM badges were selected for all brass production as RDF and RIF wasn't yet Leinster, Munster and Inniskilling were. Also several BM badges requiring a tagged on scroll were not produced in brass like the The Kings and Warwickshire.
I, like you have seen badges normally produced wholly in wm appear in brass which I'm sure are genuine. In my uncles collection he owns an all brass DLI and Yorkshire regt he and I are sure was worn from their patina/age, signs polishing and all the other stuff etc. Indeed the Black Watch badge with the die flaw under the Spinx's tablet appears in brass also and in wm any way is considered a genuine badge which begs the question when was the die re-used? In my opinion however a great many of these brass economy badges are later repros for Scottish badges the issue is further complicated as Canadian Regiment with the same badge designs eg Seaforth and Pictou Highlanders shared the same badge with the latter having a brass variant.
These wm badges which appear in brass are NOT official economy badges but it is my belief that at least some of these badges existed and were worn unofficially, the whys and the wherefores I don't know and your guess is as good as mine, BUT the vast majority of these badges IMO are in fact restrikes.
As you say a lot of the BM badges are probably more wm than brass, but to use a point Alan Owen mentioned to me if wm was the problem why did they not produce Scottish badges (army records show they didn't apart from the Royal Scots) in brass hence using up lots of white metal yet bothered to replace the KOYLI's or East Yorks' tiny wm rose with a single brass stamping and the answer is brazing. I believe brass was picked due to economics in my opinion brass is cheaper than nickel and easier on the dies considering the large numbers of badges required and the uncertainty of the length of the war as at that time money had better things to be spent on than badges.
The trouble is restrikes have confused and already complicated issue as Alan stated in another thread, I have also seen brass Rifle Brigade (later type), Cameron and Seaforth Highlanders badges plated in wm.
I believe the army's official records are what was actually going on at the time as opposed to hear say written down in Gaylor, and the facts are in black and white that no wm badges were produced in brass as an official wartime economy measure
Hope this helps,
Luke
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