The Martin Marsh fake Loyal Suffolk Hussars is no. 1408 in his catalogue. Whilst his image is not great and has in my belief been retouched to an extent causing some anomalies you can make out several distinctive features:
1) Top of the gate arch, steeper left side and flatter right.
2) Uneven buttresses in arch, longer on left pointing slightly up, shorter right pointing more horizontally.
3) Earth mound left of the castle noticeably higher than right.
4) Thick scroll borders, esp. bottom edges.
5) Gammy shaped top heavy ‘S’ in Suffolk.
What’s more examples from the same die as the first badge shown are always readily available on eBay, often there are 5 or 6 listed at any given time and they’re regularly encountered with modern looking sliders. Lastly if this is not the MM badge then I’ve never seen a badge from his die, which given how prolific he was seems unlikely they’d not be out there in droves... which the above badge of course is.
I’ve attached a picture of another badge from the same die which is at a better angle for showing the asymmetrical earth mounds, arch and buttresses. The thick bottom edge of the scroll and gammy ‘S’ is easier to see on the badge in post #1.
Re the Gaunt example there are a great many restrikes with the rectangle braze holes and these are regularly encountered with the 1970s repro Gaunt B’ham marked sliders. Their most distinctive feature is the 3 and how it’s centre point joins to the bottom end giving it a very peculiar look.
As to the Gaunt plaque there are several good threads on this topic with many examples of fake v’s genuine ones. If you search these and examine those shown I think you will conclude this one has all the attributes of a fake.
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