Imperial Pilots Badges --> Opinions Requested

[90th Light]

Hello Ferg,

I am not saying that they are from the same die. In fact to make the hollow one would involve a different process and there is more than one way they could make a badge out of solid sterling silver.

What I am saying, is that both badges are by Maybauer and that we might in fact be looking at the type 1 verses the type 2 or even 3.

The hollow one which you have put up in post 32 is a nice example of a type 1 which appears to be made from a nickle/ silver probably from the period 1913 to 1923.

The one streptile has put up in post 34 made from solid "925" silver is a type 2 or 3 and possibily more likely from the period 1930 to 1950

I take this up to 1950 because there is always the possibility that they kept making these after May 1945 to sell to Allied servicemen stationed in Germany or for German veterans still entitled to wear it and still going in the 1950's. When did Maybauer go out of business ? and were they part of the Russian zone of Germany ?

The quality of the .925 is bang on however and they would have been the perfect thing for a retired German polite of the 1914/ 15 conflict to have received in the hey-day of the Nazis 1933 - 43 plus a .925 quality is the sort of thing which appealed to Goring's sense of quality and style. A cut above the .800 that others might have offered. In very special cases .935 which is about as high as they go.

Keep in mind the better the silver, the softer the metal and the quicker detail is lost in wear. Your hollow nickle/ silver version would wear better in every day wear where as something made from 1.000 silver is down-right soft.

The .925 Maybauer Retired pilots badge has certaintly been the source of the debate over the years with some collectors liking them and some not. There has however never been a proper study made. Study one closely, the footprint of Maybauer are there and they are an outstanding quality as well. The question is, are they Maybauer 1920 or Maybauer 1940 ????

Good discusion, Chris

p.s. they may have made them from the 1920's onwards to the 1940's with the dies being reworked over time ????

Whoops ! I got the post references round the wrong way in the above.

"Ferg 1 's" example is post number 34 and "streptile's" is post number 32

Hope this makes it all a wee bit clearer,

Chris

[streptile]

I am in the Southwest for the holidays and I stumbled almost by accident upon three beautiful badges in a local antique/curio shop.

By the way, I was in New Mexico over the past week, and these badges are still at this shop, for sale, over a year later.

They are so nice in-hand that I'm actually surprised they're not sold to someone.

[Don D.]

Trevor, the Meybauer badge does not look like the one in the Meybauer catalog. For me, that is the final nail in the coffin on all these badges.

[streptile]

Oh yeah? Thanks Don. I had given up a long time ago on these, but I did wonder about that one....