A Solid KOSB

[Luke H]

Another oddity. This unpierced / solid centre Kings Own Scottish Borderers arrived today.

It’s not the usual Marsh fake nor like any of the spurious KOSB offerings I see regularly on eBay. Indeed I’m struggling to find another voided or otherwise from the same die.

Have any members encountered similar?

[mike_vee]

Is this one from IWM voided ?

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/30071334

.

[Borderer]

It is an extremely poor Fake Badge, just look at the quality of the overall striking, and definition of the whole badge, there has been no effort to clean up the excess metal around the Lion on the Crown/Royal Crest, also what should be the voided area around the castle turrets and flags has not been done either, further close examination the centre turret is missing its arrow slit and the right turret is smudged the overall definition and crispness is not there, in comparison to the IWM example badge posted by Mike.

This badge would not pass muster.

Mike, Yes your IWM example is voided. I.E. the area around the Lion and the castle turrets and flags. The badge is Fretted when the Lettering on the Motto Scroll and the Regiments Title on the Circlet is pierced.


Cheers
Hiram

[Alan O]

It's certainly not the sealed pattern.

However there are a number of WW1 badges in my albums where the badges have been incorrrectly made by sub-contractors. These include a number with solid parts instead of being pierced. The Suffolks in my album has 100% provenance.

I think it's a candidate for one of these poorly made WW1 badges that were produced in a rush to meet the huge demand for new badges in 1915-16.

Alan

[Paul Spellman]

By the look of the badge there is certainly an Alchemy that has failed to produce the right content of metals for any type of finish resembling an original.
The pitting front and rear show an amateur attempt at firing it correctly.
I wouldn’t even give it hope as a theatre made badge.
Badges were die stamped or cast with voids, on occasion I don’t doubt that some badges needed tidying up, absolutely not commercially viable to have people voiding out badges as part of production. That’s left for fakers with their dremels etc.

[Alan O]

Originally Posted by Paul Spellman

By the look of the badge there is certainly an Alchemy that has failed to produce the right content of metals for any type of finish resembling an original.
The pitting front and rear show an amateur attempt at firing it correctly.
I wouldn’t even give it hope as a theatre made badge.
Badges were die stamped or cast with voids, on occasion I don’t doubt that some badges needed tidying up, absolutely not commercially viable to have people voiding out badges as part of production. That’s left for fakers with their dremels etc.

Can I clarify this:

'absolutely not commercially viable to have people voiding out badges as part of production'

That's exactly what happened. The badge was die struck as a solid plate and then cut out and the voids were cut out afterwards. It was not a single stage that stamped the abdge, cut it out and voided in all in one go: it was a multi-stage process which is why the 1916 economy badges were made because they saved on the labour time and skills needed,