Indian Parachute Regiment - cap badge experts, please help!

[Jack Dutton-Roberts]

Hi,

I bought this one recently and I wonder if anyone can tell me if it is an original?

Thanks from Jack.

[Jack Dutton-Roberts]

Reverse.

[Adam H]

Hmmm I wouldn't want to even hazard a guess...as I couldn't tell you what to look for. But it's certainly a handsome and well struck badge, and very convincing if it is indeed a fake...I wish our modern badges were half as well struck at that example!

Cheers,

Adam

[ROBB]

Hello

[ROBB]

Very tricky to say really . I have not seen a real one ,there are a couple in Peter Taylors book but they look different .I would expect them to be Indian made and thus a tad poor quality.Hopefully Ade has a real one he can show us ,Rob

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Jack, here is mine, which is a fake. I took a chance at a general antiques fair at Great Yarmouth and bought this for £4.95. Once I got home I telephoned a (now retired) dealer friend of mine, Trevor Bate. Trevor used to supply restrikes to the trade, as well as Indian made repro cloth. All sold as copies. As I mentioned last night, he asked about the metals used on the badge. Once I told him he confirmed they were copies and mentioned he knew who made them. The badges are copper coloured metal with a "silver" plate on top.

This now brings me to your badge and the difficulty of passing judgement from a photo on a PC screen. Last night I thought that the detail of the lion tail was different to my fake. Now tonight, with these new pics you have posted I see they actually look the same as mine. My badge is clean and polished whereas yours is maybe blackened by chemical means to hide the odd finish on these fakes.

I will now post a pic of the front and back of mine. I would draw attention to a die flaw on the reverse that is present on both badges. Now that does not make yours fake; the copies could be struck from original dies? This I cannot confirm. But double check on the metal used in the construction of yours.

Hope this helps?

Sorry I wish I had a known original to post

Cheers, Ade.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Fake reverse

[Jack Dutton-Roberts]

Thanks for the comments guys

All I can say is that it looks very like Ade's fake

I'm off to look at Peter Taylor's masterpiece now

Thanks from Jack.