Wound badge with unusual hardware........

[Steve 5]

Another addition to my wound badge collection, I could not resist the badge shown here on the forum by member "Novara" for evaluation, see here http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=719720 ......so I bought it ! Thanks Andrew !
As discussed unusual hardware on this one, but definitely a St u L made piece.....In the original thread Nigel did suggest a link with this hardware as an identifying feature for St u L, with the piece in hand I have been able to compare to a similar if not identical fastening system on another St u L made piece an early EK I repeat clasp/spange.....the only difference being size, the clasp hardware is smaller !
See the images and see if you agree with our observations......as a footnote, this variant weighs in at 9g as opposed to 12g for a standard early version............it is also not as deep in profile to the standard version.
Although included in my "Wound badge collectio" thread, I think it deserves a separate thread for discussion on this short lived ? mounting hardware.........
Prost !Steve.

[Steve 5]

rear hinge set up..........

[Steve 5]

compare with this early EK I clasp/spange.................
Prost ! Steve.

[Tom B]

Very unusual...never seen one like this before ? Tom

[Nigel N]

Great badge Steve, and a good decision to buy it!!!
It certainly deserves a thread of its own, wether a small number of WB's with this hardware were produced?, or maybe this is a one off, unique piece? Either way, its a special piece!
I have seen several S&L pieces, with hardware, normally used on other types of badge or clasp (such as the KVK1 with the needle type pin), maybe sometimes stocks of the normal hardware or pins ran low, or ran out altogether, and they used whatever hardware they had available, or maybe, at different times during the production run, they tried other pin/ hardware types? We may never know for sure why anomalies like this turn up, but they make for some of the most interesting and collectable variants!!
-Nigel