more fun with die statistics

[KLR]

As you know I have differentiated all the Pattern 4362A/1896 (1896-1926) badges and came up with 16 (for this exercise) different dies. These dies were for the horse and, particularly, the ground as they display clear differences. I went through 66 badges – 50 BM regular badges, 6 VBn badges and 10 TF Bns (only the badges with horse).

I’ve now got around to examining the scroll below. To my surprise there was one basic type – though there are minor details; humped scrolls, deeper flatish scrolls, curved dip and sharper dip.

Very few makers of the various horse dies are identified. But, it appeared that the scrolls were much more uniform than the horse dies.

Either all makers adhered quite strictly to a master design (in contrast to the horse designs!) or there was a maker that cornered the scroll (for KLR at least) dies – then sold them to the main makers ??

Has anyone else looked at bi-metal badges with differing dies for other units – preferably a main design and a scroll below. If so, have you also found a discrepancy between the variety of ‘main’ parts and the more uniform dies for the scrolls???