Crude IAB Badge Real?

[Asterperious]

Could this potentially be a POW made badge or some sort of trench made item? Looks like a bad fake at first, but came with real items so I wanted to double check.

[Chet Sowersby]

It can be anything you want or believe it to be. However, this example was not produced by any of the recognized IAB manufactures during the time that the Third Reich was in business.

Chet

[juoneen]

All badges and awards were confiscated when prisoners were captured and put into camps across the usa, not to mention other allied countries. I have seen homemade badges like this made by prisoners of war, and always decently executed as this one is, but materials used depended on what was available. Sometimes they were trade to guards for things they wanted.
No it is not a factory made badge by any IAB maker, to me at first impression , a pow badge made likely by a captured soldier.
Many times I have seen them made of lead , and most of the ones I have seen have been owned by ex guards at american POW camps in the USA, and when the prisoners went home after the war ended, many times these POW made crafts were given as gifts to the guards for the kind treatment they received, and the friendships actually between the adversaries brought many ex german soldiers back to the USA for example to live for the rest of their lives .
I think your badge is quite nice and a significant badge for any badge collector especially the ones who know what I am speaking about and have other examples which are always never the same but show artistic talent. This one to me is one of the finest detailed ones I have ever seen.
ps. Only other thing it might possibly be is a field made award which were at times fashioned by soldiers to award until badges could be obtained. Does anyone here have any POW made examples they know have provenance, or field made awards they have never shown to open dialogue on these subjects because both did exist. Like I said being made of some metal like brass, these details are a copy of a maker that can be traced as that style. There are some authors here of badge book that should be familiar with what I am trying to grunt out although not very eloquently. I like it , doesnt matter if others dont, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What did the people who sold the pile of stuff have to say as to where they got the lot you purchased from? I like hearing the stories others refuse to .

[Flemming]

Without 125% rock solid provenance, this one will, in my opinion, always be a crude attempt to make an IAB.
And to buy such item, for more then the really cheap price for a fake, would be a waste of money.

But if you could provide rock solid provenance with photographic evidence, that this particulair badge was worn by a soldier, then it is a whole other storie.

/Flemming

[Thomas Durante]

I can only agree, unless you have photographic evidence of the soldier wearing this exact IAB, there is no way to be sure of anything with such a crude piece. Its possible that it was field made, or POW made, but its even more likely that its simply a very crude fake.

Tom

[Asterperious]

Thanks for your insight and help guys! Unfortunately, I got the typical "US vet souvenir" line, but since I could tell the other items in the grouping were good I thought this one had a chance. Judging by the variety of items I got in the grouping, the possbility of it being a POW made badge brought back by a guard isn't too farfetched... But ultimately who knows... at the very least it'll occupy some space in my display case

[stewy]

Thanks for your insight and help guys! Unfortunately, I got the typical "US vet souvenir" line, but since I could tell the other items in the grouping were good I thought this one had a chance. Judging by the variety of items I got in the grouping, the possbility of it being a POW made badge brought back by a guard isn't too farfetched... But ultimately who knows... at the very least it'll occupy some space in my display case

Perhaps my old friend "Fischer" might like it. He has the most comprehensive & impressive ISA collection out there. He's always looking for fake ISA's for his archive & research. Just a thought. Stewy

[Giel VW]

It for sure looks old and it doesn't look like a copy that could fool anyone. The corrosion on the reverse also looks great. If it had provenance I would believe in it!