Slow day, so let's open a can of forum worms. Talking to a dealer in Halifax this past spring, he told me the following. There were surplus buckled annulus overlays for the CBH M-137a badge available which have been affixed to non-buckled M-137 bases (a fair number of which you see with no overlays) then passed off as legitimate M-137a badges. His advice was "if you can't read CANADA on the back of the badge in the crown, don't buy it." The M-137a badge has the word CANADA in the crown band, the later, M-137 badge does not. Further to this, the buckled annulus isn't on the badge base either.
I've seen legit. versions that pass the CANADA test, but of late I have seen one ebay seller who has sold one and just listed another of these non-Canada base versions.
I usually take 'I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy' stories with some salt, but this one does made sense to me as told, since I see no reason why non-buckled annulus bases would be made concurrent with a buckled annulus issue badge. My apologies to Bill A., since this is a
pic. of one of his badges, but it does show the lack of the CANADA in the crown band and the buckled annulus from the back.
So, confirmation? Conjecture? Added thoughts?
(yes, I corrected my mis-numbered numbers!)