A.S. Infantry Assault Badge deal or steal?

[Tom Yanacek]

Hello Collector's
Here is a really nice AS in a triangle marked Infantry Assault Badge that I bought from an online auction in January of this year. The starting bid on this piece was $20. and that is exactly the price I paid for it. This is almost unbelievable to think this could happen, but it did and for several reasons.
1) The seller listed this item as a repro Silver Infantry Assault Badge.
2) Because it was listed as a repro, it scared people away or people didn't even look at the item to begin with because of the repro listing.
3) In the item description, the seller claimed to be an experienced militaria dealer and that this badge could fool the new or inexperienced collector.
4) The seller said that the badge was marked AS in a triangle, which is the mark of Alfred Stubbe of Berlin.
5) The seller stated that Alfred Stubbe was not on his list of wartime makers of this badge. (I don't think we know for certain what firm used the AS in a triangle logo, but it certainly was not Alfred Stubbe.)
6) The seller said the badge had a "post war swivel"?, frosted silver paint on the reverse, and a "chromy" finish to the front.
7) And most importantly, the definite give away that this badge is fake is that the Eagle's eye is too "cartoonish".
8) No one else bid on the badge so I got it for $20. plus $3.85 for shipping.
The seller was really happy to get rid of the piece. Although the pictures were not very good (especially the one of the reverse) I was still convinced that the badge was good. Here is the badge that I received...

[Tom Yanacek]

here is the reverse...

[Tom Yanacek]

here is a closeup of the maker mark...

I will buy "fakes" like this any day.
Best regards! Tom Yanacek

[Ian Lim]

Hi Tom,

You got the best IAB deal !!!!

very good find.

Regards
Ian

[Philippe DB]

Hi Tom,

Very nice and very interesting to see another of these chrome finished awards.

Wonder how many are out there after all but aren't posted because people aren't sure of them?

KR
Philippe

[Bruce Simcox]

Please......

......let us not start a totally misleading description of these finishes. They are not chrome or chrome finished. They may be chrome-like but there is a big difference between the two.

Chrome is used on guns, cars and tools among other things, but it wasn't used on Third Reich badges. There is no sense in starting something that, out of ignorance, could lead to misunderstanding and become misinformative.

Personally I object to the use of the word chrome to describe this finish.....it isn't the correct use or meaning of the word.

I'm sure the use of the word is meant in an innocent way, but it is a misuse of a word that describes a specific treatment.

My $.02.

-------------------------

Bruce

[Peter Wiking]

Thats a good buy
Nice award for sure.

Cheers.
Peter Wiking

[Mike Kenny]

Hi Tom,

Nice buy! I have one of these as well, they are nice badges with good detail and a great finish. Seems to be the way with AS badges (Adolf Scholze as far as I know), just think of their second pattern E-boat badges!

I've picked up a few "repros", knowing them to be originals - and the odd one I was hoping it to be original but did in fact turn out to be a repro. Always a nice feeling when you can use your hard earned knowledge to good effect though.

Bruce, I agree, not chrome. The term I use is "burnished" - ie highly polished, factory done, and selective areas only (eg obverse, swas and rifle in the case of this badge).

Regards
Mike k

[Tom Yanacek]

Thanks for your comments guys! I was really pleased to be able to obtain this badge. It is one of the nicest Infantry Assault Badges in my collection.

Best regards! Tom Yanacek

[Tom Yanacek]

Hi Tom,

Very nice and very interesting to see another of these chrome finished awards.

Wonder how many are out there after all but aren't posted because people aren't sure of them?

KR
Philippe

Hello Philippe,
I don't think that this badge is any kind of a scarce variation, by this maker. I think all the early issue pieces by this maker had this highly polished finish. I also have a Panzer Assault by this maker and it is every bit as shiny. Almost mirror-like in places. I took the Infantry Assault to a recent show in Toledo, Ohio and although people liked the badge, most thought it looked recently polished. I don't think so! These badges are remarkable in their capacity to retain their finishes. Best regards! Tom Yanacek

[nellyp51]

Cool award mate, I would have brought it two..

Hello Philippe,
I don't think that this badge is any kind of a scarce variation, by this maker. I think all the early issue pieces by this maker had this highly polished finish. I also have a Panzer Assault by this maker and it is every bit as shiny. Almost mirror-like in places. I took the Infantry Assault to a recent show in Toledo, Ohio and although people liked the badge, most thought it looked recently polished. I don't think so! These badges are remarkable in their capacity to retain their finishes. Best regards! Tom Yanacek

[Philippe DB]

Hi Guys
So that there are no misunderstandings, of course I'm not trying to convince anybody that there existed "Chrome" finished badges. And maybe I better used "chrome like" finish in my above reply, like I did in the JFS thread, that at least would have saved Bruce a lot of irritation.

Like Tom wrote it's quite possible that these "chrome LIKE" or very shiny looking badges are just earlier variants with a high quality finish compared to what was used later in the war.

However I have difficulties with people who think that every shiny badge they encounter is a postwar handpolished badge. IMO it would be possible to handpolish a high quality buntmetall badge but probably not without destroying the original finish leaving the polisched bare alloy exposed.

On zinkers it would probably be even more difficult because in most cases the finish is so thin and of low quality that once you hit the base metall there wouldn't be much left to polish anymore.

Just to underline the point I'm trying to make I'll post what I think is the only postwar polished zink badge in my collection and rest assured that doesn't come close to any original "shiny looking" badge I have ever seen.

It's a massive F&R PAB and the result of polishing is that there simply isn't any finish left on it anymore. What you see is just a shine on what probably is feinzink. Good luck if you would want to try achieving this result on "Kriegsmetall".

But than again my knowledge of polishing techniques is maybe to limited.

KR
Philippe

[Frank Heukemes]

Dear Tom,

You got a great deal!
Compare your finish to my AS PAB in the other "chrome" thread. Same company, same finish. Btw, THESE badges are NOT just burnished on swaz and rifle areas, the chromey shine is all over the obverse.
The definition "chrome" is actually not so misleading. When you actually held such a badge, you will see why, a very special finish and indeed the same looks as the "chrome" parts of plastic model kits.

[Mike Kenny]

Hi Frank,

I've been back and triple checked my badge. I agree that the obverse has a nice silvered finish, even in recesses, however the swas and rifle on my example have a mirror finish, so I disagree with you and I still believe that the flat highpoints have been burnished (on my example anyway, maybe other examples didn't receive the mirror-like finish I'm seeing). There is a definite change (not a straight line change, it is "blurred" if you know what I mean) in the finish from the top surface of the rifle to just off the flat, down towards the sides. I also still think "chrome" is the wrong term as it implies the use of the element Chromium, not the appearance of the finish. I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one - no worries!

The bottom line remains though, Tom has found a really nice genuine badge!

Regards
Mike K