''INGA WAHI KATOA'',a cautionary tale.

[pukman]

One of the rarest NZEF collar badges is the New Zealand Tunnellers ,officers badge .Made of bronze and having the scroll 'Inga Wahi Katoa'' on the scroll. Current catalogue price ,$750 NZ .

Well the story goes that there was an guy who decided to make up some off these in the 1980's .He got common scrolled NZE /NZFA etc badges ,and removed the scroll .Next he sweated on cast scroll of ''Inga Wahi Toa'' to make copies of the Tunnellers,officers badges .

Fairly easily spotted if you know what your looking for.

I have seen several that have been offered for sale ,vendor and buyer might have been unaware ,but good money was paid for these modern fakes

[atillathenunns]

I would like to point out that the last two “Inga Wahi Katoa” collar badges that were sold on trade me were sold by Geoff Oldham, and I am 99% sure that in both auctions he sold them as believed to be copies.

[pukman]

I have no doubt ,Geoff is a most reputable dealer ,and I have been dealing with him for years .

However these have been sold in the past by others (either for the right or wrong reasons) ,so collectors should be wary .

[saumua]

I inspected both of the ones Geoff sold (finally a benefit of living 2 km from his shop). He listed both as copies. However... does anyone actually have a "real" one to compare with. Never seen one myself.

[pukman]

I always thought this NZ Tunneler officers was wearing the officers tunnelers collars ,different shape scroll from the standard NZE one

[pukman]

...and possibly this Tunnelers officer too .

[atillathenunns]

The New Zealand Tunneller officers collar badge scroll is very unique compared to the standard NZ Engineers and Artillery officers collar badge scrolls.
The following photo of a NZ Tunneller officers collar badge was taken in Dainville, France.