Lincolnshire Yeomanry

[Rockape]

Luke,

Not a fan of this one. Look at the photos of known good'uns in this thread.

[Luke H]

Garry,

Thanks for commenting. I don’t pretend it’s not from the certified good ‘Bishops Mitre’ crown die (as I call it) like the badge pictured in K&K with the die flaw on the scroll. It’s also not like the badge in Gaylor (Gaunt).

The seeding on mine, quality of the crown etc are too good and fine to be 1970’s fake dies IMO. I’ve attached pics of the 2 common fakes - as you can see mine is nothing like them and it highlights the crown and seeeing points. The third picture is the Gaunt re-strike (note the flaw on the M making it near solid).

This pattern of badge was worn 1908-1920, which includes WW1 so I think there’s a question as to how many original dies there are for this badge? More than 2 is very possible IMO.

Given there doesn’t seem to be an abundance (or any) badges from the same die as mine out there leads me to think it hasn’t been re-struck. Indeed I couldn’t find another badge from this die despite searching the forum and albums for hours. The above makes me wary to rule it out as it could quite possibly be a different makers variation.

I’ve also shown the badges in the literature - K&K and Wilkinson both show Bishops Mitre crown whereas Gaylor shows a Gaunt badge (shape of crown and blurry M) for reference.

Cheers,

Luke

[Luke H]

Hold the phone... just found one.

Clearly from the same die as mine albeit in GM - note all the larger horizontal jewels in the crown’s band are small rectangles https://www.cultmancollectables.com/...=Lincolnshire+ .

Well that one certainly looks an old badge to me!

[Rockape]

I hear ya Luke but I'm kind of skeptical. I certainly wouldn't use Gaylor as a standard reference. Too many errors for my liking... If you have the tall crown variety and the short crown variety in your hand the quality differerences really shine through. This doesn't mean the one you refer to is a dud, but I am not convinced of it's originality as yet.

Best wishes.

[leigh kitchen]

Any views on this w/m please?
(I've come to this thread at its tail end but will read through all five pages).

[Luke H]

Originally Posted by Rockape

I hear ya Luke but I'm kind of skeptical. I certainly wouldn't use Gaylor as a standard reference. Too many errors for my liking... If you have the tall crown variety and the short crown variety in your hand the quality differerences really shine through. This doesn't mean the one you refer to is a dud, but I am not convinced of it's originality as yet.

Best wishes.

Cheers Garry. Appreciate it. Think I’ll hang on to mine for now until I find out something definite, it’s by far the best I’ve seen and got a good fighting chance IMO. Hopefully something definite turns up one day. All the best mate.

Originally Posted by leigh kitchen

Any views on this w/m please?
(I've come to this thread at its tail end but will read through all five pages).

Sorry Leigh but looks like the standard fake to me - shape of the crown and jewels plus wide gap between the ribbon and laurel. Just quite a deep striking of it. Probably best strike I’ve ever seen of that fake to be fair.

[leigh kitchen]

Thanks, I had taken it to be a risky one when I bought it years ago, aware of the rampant fake issue and I still walked into the trap. I noted the "crowns jewels" issue from reading posts on this thread today so that seemed the kiss of death.

[Luke H]

Originally Posted by Luke H

Recently acquired this badge having never previously seen a WM version of this badge I regarded as genuine.

This one however is not the standard fake (like the previous 2 WM versions in this thread); it is also not from the Gaunt die which has been used to create re-strikes.

My iPhone photography and the lighting don’t do it any sort of justice sadly. But I can confirm the badge has genuine wear and age, good reverse detail and is a nice thick strike. The loops are old and D shaped ‘growing’ out, the braze although heavily patina-ed in golden/yellow.

Re the dark colour on the back I’m certain it’s not chemical ageing - although it does look like it in my bad pic. Rather I believe it’s the remnants of old polish mixed with the metal that’s been abrased (not sure that’s a word) and then not cleaned off. The same crud was also on the front in the recesses however I cleaned it off with lemon juice and a toothbrush.

It’s perhaps worth noting the collection it was amongst (mix of good and bad) all appeared to have similar traces of leftover darkened polish... I suspect the previous owner was responsible and liked his display shiny.

My personal opinion and gut feeling is it’s real.

If anyone has a genuine WM badge to show it’d be appreciated. Comments welcome.

Luke

Just to finish, my badge has been given the thumbs up by experienced Yeomanry collector Keith Hook and it matches one in his collection. I’m more than satisfied it’s the genuine article.

Also I now know of the existence of a WM badge from the Gaunt die with a Gaunt plaque. Again very rare.

Most interestingly and rarest of all there is a WM version of this badge which incorrectly sports a coronet atop of the shield rather than a crown. I’m told this was often snapped off and a crown brazed on as a conversion.