Pairs or singles???

[Bill A]

A call on the weekend prompted this post. A fellow contacted me, looking for some material. He was collecting pairs of cloth titles to each regiment and corps. This certainly makes collecting more challenging.
Any thoughts?

[edstorey]

Why pairs, to show the front and back?

[Bill A]

The rationale was that the soldier wore them that way.

[Voltigeur]

The problem,as every title collector knows, is to find a 2nd world war "matchng" pair of the same shoulder title which is most of the time near impossible to find. You can always find two close-match but from the same batch.......well good luck but a pair to the same unit....that's another matter.
To find two matching post-war titles is a lot easier plenty of those still around.
Makes collecting that much more interesting but, a lot harder and can lead to disappointment. If someone knows how collecting titles can be difficult is you Bill.....any good stories to tell?

Jo

[N.S. Regt.]

I am not sure if it is the case with WW2 titles but WW1 division patches for the 4th division had a left and right for officers the maple leaf being pointed in different directions. He may have a couple of similar patches in his collection and wished to show them in pairs for all instead of just having a couple showing left and right examples. I do the same for collars although in my collection only the 6th CMR comes to mind for Nova Scotia but I cannot recall any others. I also agree with Bill's comment the soldier wore them that way and I try and collect pairs when I can.

Stephen

[edstorey]

Collecting badge pairs because that is how they were issued, an interesting collecting concept. Just to collect the Corps and Regiments that served overseas in WWII would be a huge and potentially expensive undertaking, finding singles for some of the units is hard enough.

If I were going to start up collecting Canadian insignia today, I would go for the current stuff. It is still relatively inexpensive, there is more of it, it is easy to find and in 20 years a person will have a collection of items that no-one else has.

[Bill A]

Hi Stephen, Ed, et al., Collecting "pairs" if they are different insignia, makes sense. To collect a pair of most common regimental or corps poses no big challenge. But what about 1 Can Para, or, heaven forbid, PEI Light Horse titles in canvas? That is a formidable and expensive task. I haven't seen a single of the latter title on the market for a few of years. A pair...??
Ed, I am not sure what you mean by "current stuff"? Cap badges and CF cloth titles? Or cadpat badges? If one was to collect cadpat titles, the expense already appears to be out of reach for new collectors. Cadpat titles, especially AR pattern are fetching ridiculous prices on ebay. And, try and acquire "sandbox" patches. They are in the main, undocumented, and nearly unobtainable. The roto's are producing an incredible variety of unofficial patching, and some of it is only for one section or tank crew. On one request I made, to document or find out what was available, I was told that his patch was worth $350 Cdn.
The airforce has already gone through three major variations in the their cadpat titles, and some are very difficult to acquire. And try and pick these up. At two of the shows I have recently attended, the asking price for cadpat TW was an average of $5.
One could put together a very interesting qc collection, say 1950's through late 90's, but even then there are some very pricey badges. For example, the Halifax Rifles pre 1965, the Victoria Rifles, same era, and the unilingual Canadian Engineers enamel CF badge.
The hobby is very easy to start, but unfortunately, very expensive at "advanced" levels.

[whizzbang]

I try to collect pairs of CEF collars. I figure it is mainly because I am AR and I need to have a complete "set". I have a few singles and it bugs me every time I look at them...

[rkcampbell]

Well, put it this way: when ever I see a pair for sale at a reasonable price, I get both. This is extremely useful if, in the future, I need to badge up a uniform for an exhibit.

To make it a life's ambition- seems tough and expensive.

[Pylon1357]

Interesting comments coming forth here. I guess my collection is all over the board. Primarily I collect metal insignia for overseas Canadian Units during World War Two. I have a few cloth titles, mainly to units relatives served in. Never occurred to me to collect only 1 title. I have always sought two. I suppose that's easy enough as the units are Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment, Irish Regiment of Canada, RCAF, and Ordnance Corps.

As for comments about the current CADPAT AT titles and such, danged expensive. As well as the Theater produced patches. The local embroidery shop here in KAF makes them for many units, to buy patches from them will run you anywhere from $10.00 to $20.00 per patch, with the average being $14.00. This could get very very costly.

Myself, I ask the personnel where I can get them, usually they reply by bringing me one at no cost, or a nominal fee of about $5.00 which I do not mind at all.

As for AT rank insignia, now the Navy has their little loop back, these badges are missing from my collection.

[geezer#199]

I am relatively new at this game in regards to the military aspect of collecting but I have always made it my goal to collect pairs. One, it looks good if displayed, two that is the way the collar and shoulder badges were issued.

I guess the biggest influence that made this decision for me was a relative of my wife's that had served in WW2. He collected Canadian WW 1 and WW 2 King and Queen's crown. Decorating his walls were frames of the various units, and with the odd exception he had pairs for all of them. He passed away a number of years ago and his son has continued on with the collection. I have told him about this Forum and with any luck he will be joining it in the near future as he has a few holes to fill.

His son is very knowledgeable as he served in a militia unit in Saskatchewan prior to joining the RCMP in the 1950's.

Jack

[James S]

I can see the attraction in collecting pairs. I started collecting Second War titles this way and wished I could have kept it up, but with all of the different variations and the scarcity of certain titles there was just no way. It would be nearly impossible for me to find a pair of every individual variation, let alone afford them.

James