Mint codition badges?

[macandpud]

As a collector I always favour the saying " if it looks like it was made yesterday , It probably was" and I tend to favour badges with all the signs of service use. However I recently broke my own rule and bought a group of absolutely mint cap badges at a local auction house. Half the badges were OSD , mostly with the typical OSD Gaunt mark and I`m very happy with those. The other half were Other ranks cap badges in pristine condition as though they had been made this week. On comparing them with other used examples in my collection it appears that they all match WW2 used dies mainly Gaunt types but unlike my used examples , none of them have the Gaunt or any other makers mark that you might expect? What do we think?

[macandpud]

here are a few more of the shiney badges for consideration.

[macandpud]

The last pics.Note the really bad stamping on the sabre handle of the Physical training corps badge.

[Sonofacqms]

Without commenting on your badges, I bought two frames of badges in the sixties which were covered with gold paint, the type used on picture frames and it took me two weeks to clean the paint off with paint stripper.
The result, some Victorian cap badges that looked like the were made a month previous.

A dealer friend of mine bought a box of badges at a fair and let me have a few, these had been on card in a brown cardboard box since the person who owned them had collected them and stored them this way, the result, badges in mint condition.

Original badges in perfect condition do turn up, but not as often as they used to, a sign of the times?

Others will probably have a better idea about them.

Rob

[macandpud]

During the war my father was a 15 year old working for Compton Webb the uniform makers and he accumulated a lot of mint badges . Half of them were lost in the blitz but I was given a tin full when I was about eight, unfortunately I handled and polished them so much that most of them lost the original finish including a number of plated ones. I still have a dozen or so of the original batch and have learnt by my mistake.

[Luke H]

Agreed they’re mostly (or all) Gaunt, I recognise the Warwickshire Yeomanry and LRB.

Issue is when were they made. For example the Warks Yeo and Physical Training Corps are restruck to this day from the ‘original’ die.

The wolf amongst the sheep I think is the Herefordshire. Never seen an overlaid scroll one I considered genuine indeed they’re most often seen with Gaunt B’ham marks and sold by eBay fake sellers.

If the Herefords is the product of a 70’s fake die like I suspect then that throws the integrity of the collection into some doubt.

As Rob says there are many examples of collections of various sizes which were mounted seemingly straight after manufacture and stored in favourable conditions whereby the badges retain their original plating or lustre and although they look brand new shouldn’t be doubted.

Rather the complication with this group is them mostly/all being Gaunt a significant number of their dies survived or were reused. Also was this ‘collection’ added to over time, so, some could be originals, others early re-strikes and I suspect one 1970s fake potentially. The slider shape on the badges may be an indicator.

Personally I wouldn’t doubt the RA, RAOC, Labour Corps, Queen’s or LRB. I’ve no idea if the NZ badges have been restruck but given that Herefordshire badge there would be to seed of doubt in my mind re the rest.

[leigh kitchen]

"New" badges which I have along with a few buttons, proficiency badges and rank insignia mounted as they came in a couple of small samples cases.
Presumably dating to before circa 1936.
There's a little variety in the sliders.
A check of a couple of the buttons shows "C. PITT & Co Ltd LONDON. W" back marks.

[cbuehler]

I have roughly a half dozen absolutely original badges, including a Victorian Suffolk Regt. that look new.
I think one of the reasons is that they were never issued or polished in the first place, and secondly, that they were stored in some way that they were never exposed to air pollutants or high humidity. How this happened I cannot guess.

CB

[Frank Kelley]

I think it is nice to actually have badges with that certain degree of mint bloom about them, I agree, they do not turn up as often these days.

Originally Posted by Sonofacqms

Without commenting on your badges, I bought two frames of badges in the sixties which were covered with gold paint, the type used on picture frames and it took me two weeks to clean the paint off with paint stripper.
The result, some Victorian cap badges that looked like the were made a month previous.

A dealer friend of mine bought a box of badges at a fair and let me have a few, these had been on card in a brown cardboard box since the person who owned them had collected them and stored them this way, the result, badges in mint condition.

Original badges in perfect condition do turn up, but not as often as they used to, a sign of the times?

Others will probably have a better idea about them.

Rob