Silver War Badge

[Dave-B]

Hello all,
I bought this silver war badge yesterday and have a couple of questions about it.Were they made from real silver?This one has no hallmark but the patina suggests it could be real silver?? Is it possible to research the number stamped to the reverse?
I think it is a second pattern badge and is for someone who was discharged from the army because the numbers are prefixed with a letter B????
The stamped number is B240969
BTW I paid 8 quid for it,is that a reasonable price?

Many thanks.

Dave

[Dave-B]

reverse

[yellow]

Indeed the number is researchable at the National Archives. Most 'for hire' researchers charge £3.50 for a look up which will provide you with the mans name and unit and reason for discharge.....sometimes the reason is a listed as a Kings Regulation.

The badge is silver. 8 quid is a reasonable price.

These badge are now becoming hard to find....most medal collectors I know have small collections....I myself have 60 unresearched badges and another 7 with medal groups.

Then RAF prefix is the hardest to find in my opinion.

Steve.

[Adam H]

These are indeed getting harder to find. Few of them seem to have stayed with the medals as well so finding them as part of a group is even more uncommon. I have only 2 of these badges. One is with the recipient's other medals...the other is my great-grandfather's. I'm fortunate enough to have the original certificate as well for his, these I think are even scarcer than the actual badges.

Steve, do you know if the UK National Archive rolls also have information on Canadian (and other Colonial) recipients? I gather great-grandad was discharged due to age/health but don't have anything conclusive really. I suppose I really should have ordered his service records from the archives here years ago. He was around 51 when he went overseas!

Cheers,

Adam

[yellow]

Adam,

I did contact Jim (Vimy Militaria) regarding researching Canadian badges. Apparently his researcher can do look ups on those Canadian "C" prefix badges. He didnt say how or where. I assumed the records are in Canada?

Unfortunatley, I got a little side tracked and I didnt follow through with researching my Canadian badges.

To be honest I was about to ask you the same question mate!

Steve.

[Dave-B]

Indeed the number is researchable at the National Archives. Most 'for hire' researchers charge £3.50 for a look up which will provide you with the mans name and unit and reason for discharge.....sometimes the reason is a listed as a Kings Regulation.

The badge is silver. 8 quid is a reasonable price.

These badge are now becoming hard to find....most medal collectors I know have small collections....I myself have 60 unresearched badges and another 7 with medal groups.

Then RAF prefix is the hardest to find in my opinion.

Steve.

Thanks for the info Steve! Is it possible to search at the National Archives online? If not,do you know of any researchers?
Is it possible to find badges with a silver hallmark?

Cheers

Dave

[ynot]

The badge is silver. 8 quid is a reasonable price.

These badge are now becoming hard to find....most medal collectors I know have small collections....I myself have 60 unresearched badges and another 7 with medal groups.

Then RAF prefix is the hardest to find in my opinion.

Steve.

Hello Steve,

I would also have said that 8 quid is an ok price for the badges, but while I was back home over the weekend I didn't see any for under £15. I actually only saw about 4 of them and decided not to buy at that price. Do you think those were just London dealer prices?

Tony

[ynot]

Nice badge Dave only it doesn't fit in with your collection so, you'd better give it to me.

Tony

[Dave-B]

Nice badge Dave only it doesn't fit in with your collection so, you'd better give it to me.

Tony

Ah but that new 57er stickpin you have just received doesn't fit in your collection so I reckon we should do a swap!

Dave

[yellow]

No sorry, there a no searchable databases online that will help you. Someone could potentially make a packet if they put the list onto CD for collectors. In doing this I would also expect the value of these badges to rise.

The majority of my badges cost me £3-4 each. £12-£15 is about the standard dealer price.....I prefer to find mine in grandma times old jewellery box on a general antique dealers stall for a lot less.


I remember a very long time ago writing to another fellow collector in the OMRS, who from the just the number, could tell you exactly which unit the badge is attributed too. VERY interesting dont you think? He was going to charge me 50p per badge for this service. Maybe one day someone will publish the number blocks. That guy certainly had an advantage over all of us when it comes to collecting these badges!

If I hold any information concerning the Lincs Reg that someone is interested in I am more than happy to share........its a shame that this is not a common attitude shared in the medal collecting community.

Steve.

[Dave-B]

Thanks for the info Steve!


I hope someone does publish the list of numbers,it would be very helpful!

Thanks again mate!

Dave