Question on Azad Hind neck order

[Kenny80a]

How can you tell if this is a war time issued award or not?

[Kenny80a]

[Kenny80a]

[Kenny80a]

[chrisje110]

I was reading on these some time ago, the ones with the Rudolf Souval marked backplate where supposed to be wartime, but because of Souvals postwar production it is hard to know for sure.

Very collectable piece for sure !

[Thomas Bendixen]

lovely

Cheers Thomas

[Alex W.]

Just going by the marked backplate is not a safe way to find out about pre 1945 production with Souval Azad Hind awards.
Speaking from my experiance - having a special collection interest in early post war made Souval and S&L items - the piece in question here is certainly not a wartime made piece (before May 8th 1945...)
The ribbon loop is not the wartime style used by Souval.
One should realize that the interesting date on Azad Hind decorations actually should be 1961 instead of 1945.

Here is a link to a 2nd class breast star with Souval named backplate. Clearly a post 1945 made piece with correct hardware dating to around 1955-1960. Still it's to be considered an original made item, since the "cutoff date" for Azad Hinds was 1961 instead of 1945.

So, the "Souval" marked back plate shoud not be used to differentiate between wartime and postwar production.

Here is link to my Azad Hind 1st class Neck cross. Again, post 1945 for sure. It should help you to compare the details. It might be the pictures, but the details around the hilts look rather weak in the above neck cross.

Regards,
Alex

[Kenny80a]

What kind of price do these badges usually bring?

[Kenny80a]

The badge looks a lot better than the pictures show. I can't seem to get very good lighting when I take my pictures.