Navy Wound Badge opinion

[herrgeezer]

I have a small Imperial collection and would like to aquire a Navy Wound Badge. I found this Gold Navy Wound Badge online but am hesitant to purchase based on what little info I have about these badges. Any opinions offered would be appreciated.

[stogieman]

One of the most...

... heavily reproduced Imperial-era items. Unless your source is unimpeachable, I would not touch the badge. I cannot remember the last real one I saw sold...

[Rick Research]

I'm not entirely sure (can never be sure from scans' colors versus real colors) if that IS a gold, rather than a black or silver stripped to brass base metal.

The thing is, there are so FEW naval wound badges, most of them were probably never issued anyway, given the nature of most forms of warfare that one of these could have been earned in. (You were alive, or you were dead.)

I don't believe there was a single solitary naval officer showing in the interwar Ranglisten with a gold and only a handful of silvers.

I have a STEEL "silver" one, matte-silver finish, with typical needle pin that I'm happy with. Obtained in the early "lead castings in garage molds fakes"1970s, from the stock of a defunct German effects shop (tons of never used ribbon, etc etc etc) and he had all three grades. Something terrific like $4.75 apiece back then, but I was only a kid and only got the one. None of them had ever been sold to recipients.

I have seen many many many variants of these, in all sorts of metals. These days, I wouldn't be sure of one outside of a documented group, either.

Chances are that in most of the silver and gold grades anyway, they were post-1936 pieces from after number of times wounded regulations were changed to severity of wound and disability.

[Doug See]

I believe this seller is okay. I've purchased from him before. He bought a large, old, Imperial badge collection and has been selling it off on eBay. His prices are reasonable. Actually, I just bought his black naval wound badge since it looked good to me. It's a good thing to be paranoid about eBay, but in this case, I think it's okay. If you want to see repro Imperial and pilot badges, look at seller the82nd.

[Eric Stahlhut]

Two different design types.

I've noticed two separate styles of naval wound badge over the years, and David shows one style, while Doug has the other style. Notice the difference at the top of the anchor...

[Rick Research]

Yup, there are also "Roman" hilts and "bicycle grip" hilts, "pirate" or perhaps "Samurai sword" crossguards and "Roman" ones, and differences in the anchor flukes. Most seem to be brass, which my instinct tells me is post-1918, since that was a more critical war effort metal than the stamped steel most common with ARMY issue 1918 wound badges.

I've never had any idea which could possibly be the "original" type. The only one I ever encountered in a documented "virgin" group from the owner was a Marine Infantry reserve officer wounded in China in 1914... who only got his in the late 1930s, having slipped through the cracks on return from Japanese POW camp in 1920.

Do we want to tack on scans of ours here or start a new thread (or find an old one, if there is one in the back pages)?

Back again, here's a link to one surviving with scans of what I call the "bicycle grip" handle first, and mine second:

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ht=naval+wound

The more I look at the one posted starting off this thread, the more I dislike the FLATNESS of the anchor flukes but most especially of the CROSSGUARDS, which appear to have no detail whatsoever. that is certainly not normal wear, rather an absence of detail. My gut feeling is it is a black that has been scrubbed and buffed down. Icky as mine is in the thread link, the official names for the two higher grades were "matte-white" and "matte-yellow" and NOT "silver" or "gold." They should be matte finished, not gleaming metal (except for those 1920s sterling silver ones!) Soldiers at the front wearing "sparklies" in 1918 would have drawn sniper attention, pronto!

[Eric Stahlhut]

Rick,

I noticed that your example has a hinged device at the top of the anchor stem, while David's example has a ball-shaped device. That was the glaring stylistic variation I was referring to.

Isn't it ironic or odd that a relatively rare award has so many design variations? Sort of like a certain Turkoid badge... You say Istanbul, I say Constantinople!

P.S. Most of these were postwar awarded badges anyhow, no? I concur with you on the method of dating the very early pieces. They were ALWAYS matte finished, except for the black grade. I have a peachy black DRGM type in a glossy finish. Not naval, but army style.

[herrgeezer]

Thank you...

for the replies gentlemen. My gut feeling was that the lack of detail in the sword hilts and handles and the "straps" around the top of the anchor, suggested that I needed more input from people more knowledgeable then myself. I will pass on this one. Helmut Weitze does have 3 black grades as well as a very shiney gold grade offered right now. I think I'll start there.

Thanks again,
David