about SHuCo IAB

[Hans N]

Hi Hans N

Is there a net on the front sight of the K98 in your SHuCo IAB? Moreover, I think there should be a "mustache" on eagle beak...I think you can find it clearly in my first picture and you can find the "net" on front sight in first picture, too.
As I remember, they are special characters of SHuCo IAB.

Indy

Hi Indy

My ShuCo don´t have the net on the gunsight but it seems to have the "mustache" on the eagles beak. Mine is a 5 leafartery version and yours seems to be the one with 4 leafartery, somewhere in the late stage of the war it seems that ShuCo changed their design for the IAB´s. The question is which one is the latest version.

[Hans N]

Here is the top right leaf with the 5 arterys

[Lorenzo Brown]

Here is my "5-stem" SHuCo IAB. The weight on this one is only 25.7 grams but the badge is comparatively thin. The catch opens to the left in typical ShuCo style.

Interesting on this one is the mark. Notice that the typical cast-in mark is very high, almost under the hinge. Then, below it, is another "ShuCo" mark that is stamped in. The second mark is in entirely different italicized script.

My thoughts were that this was an early badge because of the thinness and high qulality silver finish. What fascinates me is the second mark. Almost looks like the first production run had set the mark too high under the hinge, so the badge was stamped with another ShuCo stamp... perhaps a stamp that was used on other SHuCo products.

OBVERSE


REVERSE


Mark

[Lorenzo Brown]

Well.....what do you think of the mark?


I think it is pretty unusual because it appears to be an authentic stamp that would have been very costly to make...not likely done by a collector or faker.

Opinions?

[Frank Heukemes]

Dear Lorenzo,

The lower mark looks like it was applied before the metal was cooled down enough, looks like it was still hot and distorted the mark.

[Lorenzo Brown]

Hi Frank. I agree that both marks, and the entire area around them, look "mushy" and distorted....but the second mark looks very unique and professional and appears to be applied before the silver finish.

I have often felt that many of the "maker" firms were doing commercial or retail business in lines other than military badges.....perhaps jewelry, industrial, or other applications.....and may have had other marks applied to these items.

I've never seen this type of "SHuCo" mark before and wonder if perhaps this mark was applied because of the obliterated first mark that was too high near the hinge. The area inside the letters is actually "flush" with the surface outside of the letters....so it is not your typical stamp. It is a stamp that emphasizes the outline of the letters rather than imprinting the entire body of the letter. Hard to show the details by photo, but looking at it sideways against the light, you could see what I mean.

[Indy]

Hi Lorenzo

Is there a "net" pattern on the front sight of the K98 in your SHuCo IAB? Thanks!

Indy

[Indy]

Hi Hans N

I don't know the front sight without "net" pattern is correct or not. Because my friend told me that SHuCo IAB has a special "net" on the K98 front sight. He told me that net is very difficult to re-cast a fake one from original IAB, and fake one will lose a lot of details if we compare it with original one. The SHuCo IAB's eagle is kind of cute, right? Moreover the leaf arteries are much more smooth than others. Maybe Yuri can help us....

Indy

[greg.hays]

Hi Lorenzo, this is an interesting badge. I saw this exact same "double" mark on a silver SHuCo IAB at the Kassel show last month. A faint italicized "mushy" mark below a high set mark under the hinge. Now I wish I had bought it so I could post pics, but at the time I had already bought a SHuCo badge and could not justify the extra purchase to the wife.

Hi Frank. I agree that both marks, and the entire area around them, look "mushy" and distorted....but the second mark looks very unique and professional and appears to be applied before the silver finish.

I have often felt that many of the "maker" firms were doing commercial or retail business in lines other than military badges.....perhaps jewelry, industrial, or other applications.....and may have had other marks applied to these items.

I've never seen this type of "SHuCo" mark before and wonder if perhaps this mark was applied because of the obliterated first mark that was too high near the hinge. The area inside the letters is actually "flush" with the surface outside of the letters....so it is not your typical stamp. It is a stamp that emphasizes the outline of the letters rather than imprinting the entire body of the letter. Hard to show the details by photo, but looking at it sideways against the light, you could see what I mean.

[Bruce Simcox]

Hi Lorenzo......

......

I have often felt that many of the "maker" firms were doing commercial or retail business in lines other than military badges.....perhaps jewelry, industrial, or other applications.....and may have had other marks applied to these items.

About a year ago I came across some cool info in a general collector column printed in the local paper and oddly enough a question concerning SHUCO came up. At least I thought it odd until the article described how, before the Second World War(1920's - 1930's), that SHUCO was active in the production of metal stamped toys, toys that happen to collect quite a premium on the market at this time. I had saved the article(to reproduce here), but unfortunately my roomie's daughter decided to do a bit of staightening up and the ignorant witch threw it out.AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGHH!

It makes sense then that companies we are familiar with having produced wartime awards would have been involved in similar peacetime activity. Not only does it make sense there is evidence to support what is now more than speculation and theory.

I'll try to find the article on the newspaper website and copy it. If I'm successful you'll see it here

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

Bruce

[Bruce Simcox]

accidentally double posted.