90th Regiment of Foot (Perthshire Volunteers)?

[Frank Kelley]

Hello Peter,
Well, you could certainly buy real badges for that sort of money in those days, I do remember paying "pocket money" prices for badges as a small boy, for the rarer ones, I often appealed to my long suffering father!
Regards Frank

Originally Posted by PETEM7591

Hello Frank. I have found this price list for you from 1975 showing prices.
Peter.

[manchesters]

Peter,

Pick amother few and send some photos.
Hopefully these will be OK.

regards

[wright241]

Originally Posted by PETEM7591

Hello Frank. I have found this price list for you from 1975 showing prices.
Peter.

Peter,
I was heavily into collecting badges then and I recall genuine (and I mean genuine!) glengarrys were about £25 and rarer ones - such as the Irish Militia ones - cost me around £60; whereas ones such as the 27th/83rd etc were around £40. Most of mine came from Wallis & Wallis (because in those days, W&W specified whether they were re-strikes or not). The prices that the odd dealer that I did get stuff from were close to this price.
The finish and the front and rear striking of genuine GG's as against copies was extremely noticeable - especially the colour. If you want copies/re-strikes or fakes, these are readily available on ebay and/or from the infamous South Wales lady dealer.
Good luck in the future and remember that most of us have learnt the hard way.
With huge increase in demand, the proliferation of fakes is the natural consequence of supply and demand. So its getting even more difficult. There are however, some decent dealers around that you can buy with confidence. Searching around this forum should help you a lot. I would also suggest that have a good look through the albums here.
All the best in the future.
David

[Sonofacqms]

Excuse me for asking but is the Manchester Regt "tram conductors" badge shown in this thread a genuine badge or a fake?

If it is a fake then what is wrong with it?

Rob

[Frank Kelley]

The Manchester's certainly appears not to be original, the die from which it made lacks all the fine detail you would expect, it is far too crude, really awful.
The sad thing is that an original remains today and was then a very common badge, you could have bought a real one for £2 back in those very happy days.

[Sonofacqms]

Frank,

Having looked at the Manchester badge, I cannot see exactly what you mean by fine detail, the badge looks as though it has seen some wear also it looks as though it could have spent some time braving the elements, possibly being ground dug.

I find it very difficult to ascertain whether many badges are original by looking at a screen image, obvious points like cyphers that do not hang clear on Household Cavalry badges are one thing that can be easily seen, but this badge I would say from the screen image looks OK to me.

As for the aforementioned dealer from Surrey who knowone seems to have heard of, I dealt with him in the sixties when he was in London from memory, I bought a lot of badges from him, all of which were unissued and currently worn such as Leeds Rifles A/A 3/- (15p), 23rd London QC A/A 5/- (25p). I also exchanged badges with him.

These prices seem ludicrous to us now, but 5/- was the price of 20 cigarettes then and I was earning £10 a week to give some idea. Also apart from a few specialist dealers such as William Tobin there were few places to get badges from apart from meeting up with fellow collectors if you could find them and looking in "Exchange & Mart". Militaria Fairs did not spring up until I think the mid seventies and many antique dealers thought that cap badges were junk.

All the badges I obtained from this dealer were to my mind good as they were still all in current use, but this situation may have changed as we moved into the seventies when as Laurie Archer said in his notes "the era of the restrike" appeared. I was offered LRDG badges in those days, but knowing how scarce original badges were I never took them up on the offers and this is something I still adhere to unless I know the source and it proves to be good.

I never bought anything from this dealer after we went to decimal currency, so I cannot comment after 1971.

Rob

[Frank Kelley]

Hello Rob,
Regarding the Manchester's, I think the best thing for you to do is compare the photograph with a real one from your own collection.
You would certainly be very unlikely to have been able to buy an original LRDG for £2 back in 1975.
Kind regards Frank

[Sonofacqms]

Frank,

I certainly was not offered any LRDG cap badges for £2.00 even in those far off days, I think £10 from memory was the best and only offer I had, but turned it down without seeing the badge as it was a weeks wages and I knew they had been reproduced as the unit was a small one.

Rob

[Frank Kelley]

Hello Rob,
£10 was certainly a great deal of money in those days, the £2 comes from the price list that Peter posted, but, it's all relative and proportional, you only have to look at what a good original example would be worth today.
They are, however, quite nice things and certainly for many people, a badge that a collector only buys once.
Kind regards Frank