LRDG badge help needed

[kalamees]

I love collecting British cap badges but this one I am not an expert on, is it a post war badge?

[Adrian Stevenson]

Yes, it is a modern copy.

Cheers, Ade.

[kalamees]

Thanks Ade, what about the RFC badges?

[peter monahan]

There are far more copies of RFC badges than there are originals, IMO, so unless you have good reason to beliee it is original - price & provenance - it is, I fear, likely to be a copy.

[kalamees]

Thanks Peter

[popskipa]

Yes the LRDG badge is a modern fake.

Originals look quite different, image attached.

Compare the detail on the scorpions back, the tail not touching the legs, and the letters LRDG. These points are good indicators to use in comparison.

Keith

[kalamees]

Thanks Keith, its not often I get a chance to check before I buy. The original looks really nice

[peter monahan]

This has been discussed on other threads here, I think, and ceratinly on the British Badge Forum: copies were made of the LRDG badges for re-unions and so on. And, of course there are out and out fakes, created with intent to decieve. Sadly, the only difference between a copier and a faker is intent in many cases, though a gent I knew who made badges for canadian groups usually included a deliberate error in his copies of older items. Which works fine as long as collectors know that this has been done. Otherwise, I buy a 'copy', duff it up a bit and re-sell it as original.

[BrentNunns]

I concur with Peter that there are far more copies of LRDG badges than there are originals. However understanding which ones are the copies and which are the originals is seldom explained very well.<O</O
I do not agree with Keith’s comment, quote — “Compare the detail on the scorpions back, the tail not touching the legs, and the letters LRDG. These points are good indicators to use in comparison.”<O</O
<O</O
Original 2nd Pattern LRDG badges can be divided into 3 categories, general issue, private purchase and post war LRDG association badges.<O</O
Original wartime general issue LRDG and private purchase LRDG badges can in turn be divided into 4 categories of manufacture, cast, die stamped, die cast and embroidered.<O</O
<O</O
In regards to the quality of original wartime LRDG badges this varied from the poorly defined (some cast badges) to LRDG badges with superb detail to the scorpion (die stamped).<O</O
Most original LRDG badges have a nice round outer wheel, however there is an original variation that has an oval outer wheel. Most original LRDG badges have a single raised edge to the inside edge of the wheel, however there is an original variation that has a second raised edge to the outside edge of the wheel.<O</O
Most original LRDG badges the tail does not touch the legs, however I have come across two original variations where the tail does touch the legs, one of which is in the General Lloyd Owen collection.<O</O
<O</O
Interestingly the following pictures are of a copy LRDG badge that is strikingly similar to the badge presented by Kalamees. <O</O
The letter is from the General Lloyd Owen collection and the hand writing and signature is that of General Lloyd Owen. The interesting part is that General Lloyd Owen does not refer to the obvious touching leg or the second raised edge to the outside edge of the wheel as being the easy to spot signs of an LRDG fake, but instead he only refers to the “fancy work on the circle.”<O</O

[kalamees]

Thank you all for spending so much time on checking this out, i was almost going to buy this becuase the quality looks so good, but i think that I will wait for one with provinance. Nigel