[Paddy]

Hi Fuzzybadge

Looking at your 4 badges, if I am honest the only one I would be totally confident with is the Royal Navy Officer's beret badge. The 2nd pattern RND badge is one I have never really been too happy with in the die stamped version like yours, the main reason for this is that there is a dealer on ebay who sold these on a weekly basis a few years ago, he still sells them every now and then under a different name but they are all die stamped and sometimes he even goes to the trouble of breaking one of the blades off just to give it that "worn" impression. I have a version of this style of badge but mine is die cast with a smoother back. I have only seen a few like this but this is the version I would always go for. There is another die cast 2nd pattern badge which is more flat than this and the back is a bit more crude but I still believe it to be a good version. Moving on to your first pattern RND badge, none of the RND officer badges I own have the berries (pellets) in between the leaves. If you look at a standard RN officer's cap or beret badge you will see that they only ever have 2 berries and these are in the uppermost leaves with one either side of the crown. I am not sure where the badge with 6 berries like your originated but I have always (maybe wrongly) associated these with a foreign navy. For the 1st pattern RND badge I would again prefer to see a die cast version as opposed to a die stamped version. I have both versions and years ago I was told by a dealer that the die stamped version I have was a Ludlow of London version, I have never found any proof of that but still keep the badge in my collection although it is the version I am least convinced about. Your newest badge is one that I was watching on ebay and while it was on there I saw the back without the backing cloth and thought it looked very rough and I believe it is one that has been cast, not by a recognised badge manufacturer, as the front is also quite rough from what I remember. These are my own opinions and I wouldn't advocate getting rid of any of your badges based on them but personally I would look for die cast variants over die stamped.

I have attached some of the RND officer's badge I have in my own collection so that you can compare with yours.

Paddy