[Chrisr]

Ian,

I would hang onto it. Many of the so-called experts have been proven wrong in the past. I nearly confined a Drake to the bin based on "expert" advice but remembered the origins of it. There were other manufacturers of these badges during the war. As a result of the discussion on mine and the others purchased at the same time another member retrieved an original Nelson from his restrikes bin. It was good to see the emailer gave reasons though and it would be worth seeing if others have similar characteristics as yours

I don't know how the mysterious emailer can determine how thin it is from the photographs. Mine, which is an original, has the same crisp stamping as yours and looks thin from the rear but is unbendable. Mine is 40mm from the top of the anchor to the bottom of the HOOD and 33mm across the scroll, so yours is a cap badge. The design is pretty much the same as yours but it doesn't have a Gaunt plate.

Hope it turns out to be a good'un.

Cheers
Chris