New Member with a question

[LSJGreen]

Hello all;

I've been interested in Cdn. and British badge collecting for a while but I recently have become curious about the Australian army badges. I am somewhat confused when I see references to Grebert and Cossum as Cossums's publications don't really appear in chronological order. What is the numbering system of each of these two references about?

Sorry for the dumb question, but having difficulty finding an answer. Thanks

LSJG

[Bill A]

Hi LSJGreen, welcome to the Forum. Your account is active and open for posts.

[kingsley]

Jeff Cossum published several books on Australian badges from 1983, now out of print. Some are currently listed on Ebay and are worth paying a fair bit for the information. The books were 1930-42, 1901 to the 1920s, Cloth badges, Rising Suns and Buttons. Before this, we only had a few incomplete and inaccurate references on Australian badges.
He illustrated the badges in order of army precedence, starting with the Light Horse, but the numbers in the books don't mean anything except making it easier to find something.

Jeff started to compile another book on pre-federation State badges but never published it. I have been trying to find out what has happened to Jeff and to the valuable information. I believe that the book would be absolutely sensational and really hope that he has passed the torch on to someone else if he is unable to finish it.

In 2000, for the centenary of Federation, Rick Grebert published a Pre-federation Australian badge book which is one of the few references we now have. It has some great pictures, but as Rick himself was the first to admit, is by no means complete. There is what we know, what we can assume, and what we don't know.

[LSJGreen]

Thanks Kingley,

So if Grebert's reference numbers are all Pre-Federation, does that mean that a reference to a "Cossum 1" would be around 1901 and a "Cossum 500" more recent?

[kingsley]

The terms "Cossum1" or "500" don't mean anything to me. The first book he published, i.e.book number 1, was 1930-42 badges. Badge number 1 would therefore be much later than number 1 in the 1903 book that came out later.
I hope this makes sense.

[BCCU]

When Cossum's Buttons of the Australian Defence Forces In Australia is used to reference a button they quote the page and a letter. Since 4 buttons are presented on most pages - the buttons are lettered - Top Left a, Top Right b, Bottom Left c and Bottom Right d. Thus 15c. is the Bottom Left button on Page 15.