Retire PilotS Badge

[Tim Hart]

I have been offered the opportunity to purchase a Retired Pilots Badge maker marked Juncker (who else!). I have done some research on the Forum and came across a thread started by Mark Miller some two years ago (who interestingly was also being offered a Juncker piece at the time). The thread was pretty inconclusive but extremely interesting since Jos was able to submit an image which suggested that there were two distinct styles of the badge manufactured by Juncker. For comparative purposes I would like to reuse the images of 2005 (trusting that this does not offend the present owners of the badges) against images of the badge which I have been offered which would suggest that in fact there were three different versions of the badge (assuming of course that all three posted here are considered genuine pieces). All opinions would be most welcome since this is definitely new territory for me and these things don't come cheap!

Best wishes,

First up the offered piece.

[Tim Hart]

Reverse

[Tim Hart]

Mark's badge from 2005

[Tim Hart]

Reverse Mark's example

[Tim Hart]

and finally the example used by Jos in his comparison

[Tim Hart]

Reverse of Jos's example

[Tim Hart]

The offered piece as compared to the example that appears in Detlev's latest catalog. Looks pretty similar to me.

[Tim Hart]

How do I edit my thread title to Retired Pilots Badge?Best wishes

[Marc Garlasco]

Tim,
Gorgeous piece. I wish I had something substantive to add to the thread, but I will just admire...
Marc

[Tim Calvert]

Tim!

That explains the recent sale!!! From what I can see, I do like all three badges.

Does this one come in a case??

TKC

[Mike Kenny]

Hi Tim,

Well, personally I like the example you're showing. I also like the Jos and Niemann examples - they all look "Juncker" to me.

If someone can explain why Juncker had 2 dies to explain the other style of "early quality" badge, given that by Nov 1943 only ~400 of these badges had been awarded and zinc badges also exist, I'd really like to hear it!

Regards
Mike

[George L]

Tim, so you let some nice fliers go for the "bird parked on a rock" badge... j/k

These are tricky and out of my league, but these do look good.

[rhudspith]

Some thoughts for consideration -

On the two styles, I believe this could well be down to a general change in the design of the badges at the time the 1st patterns were replaced by the 2nd patterns. If you look at the 1st and 2nd pattern juncker pilots badges for example the second pattern is more aggresive and has more defined feathers. If you compare the two patterns of retired badge a similar situation could have occured. Not sure if there is any way to check which badge came first but at this stage I would speculate that the badge with the less defined / promenant breast feathers is the earlier badge.

[Pieter Verbruggen]

The retired pilot badge by Juncker came in two styles:

-the first style is pictured in the Dr.Doele book, this type is virtual impossible to find.(see Mark's badge)

-the second style as shown here (by Tim)is a very rare badge but from time to time you will encounter them.
this second style also exists in aluminum of which I only know one cased example.
Pieter.

[Tim Hart]

All, many thanks for your very helpful comments about the Retired Pilots Badge (sadly Tim it's not cased). Once I actually get the badge in question in my mit I'll share some better shots of the piece. In the interim thanks for your enlightening observations.Best wishes