1916 badges with bars attached

[dumdum]

Hi all

Still intrigued by the appearance of 1916 OWS badges that have bars attached to them and have just acquired this example with the 1917-18 bar.

The other one is a badge I've had for many years.

I'd always entertained the notion that these bars might have been the work of some bored munitionette (or her male friend..) but notice that the numbers are exactly the same, although the "1917" does rise a little off the horizontal.

Of note is that the hyphen is deeply struck on both.

While they must have issued thousands of these badges, I see that these two both have a "B" prefix and are in the 202000 range being 101 numbers apart.

A very quick check of the other half dozen badges I have (plated, enameled or stamped with the owner's name) shows no other badge with a "B" prefix.

The thought does occur, however, that they maybe issued SO many that they did add a "B" to a new run of badges.

All comments and suggestions appreciated!