Hi Paddy, I had looked at your plate in your album as a comparison and as you can see its a pretty good match. My reservations are as follows. It is pristine, perhaps a little too pristine for a badge of that age but you could be right maybe its been re gilded. If you look at the back of the wreath its hollow backed. I've always believed RM officers plates to have semi hollow backs to the wreaths, look at your own, it looks to have a more 'solid' back to it and the definition isn't as distinct. This is the same on late Victorian and Kings crown era plates. The loops on the back, one of them appears to have a round 'base' to it, I could be wrong but I thought early badges didn't have a base or 'feet'. Lastly, I'd be interested to know how much your plate weighs in grams as compared to later kings crown plates its about 8 or 9 grams lighter. I could be paranoid of course but every thing gets faked nowadays and the points raised have got me wondering, any observations will be appreciated, cheers,
Paul
|