Unfinished AS Minesweepers

[Thomas Durante]

Hi guys,

Norm, excellent comparisons on the Minesweeper and I follow your thoughts exactly. I think the die characteristics as well as the specific die trimmer used firmly links all these badges together.

Regarding the "AS in Triangle" PABs, I also concur that a new entity partnered with Schwerin and W&L is a very probably scenario. Further evidence of this is that all the badges produced with the "AS in Triangle" logo are all later war, zinc products.

Tom

[John R.]

What is striking to me is that the AS in a triangle second pattern S-boat is probably the best of all them in quality--insofar as holding up all these years after the war.

John

[Norm F]

What is striking to me is that the AS in a triangle second pattern S-boat is probably the best of all them in quality--insofar as holding up all these years after the war.

John

Thanks Guys,

John, I too was struck by the number of minty S-boats around while most of the minesweepers look kind of ratty, except for this one of course...

Best regards,
---Norm

[pavels_2005]

Hi,

here is the complete group of badges found on that place. I think they were made at the end of the war.
Especialy the hardware setup on the minesweeper badges is showing that.
This setup system is not presented on other AS in triangle minesweeper badges that the collectors have. All known badges have the ball hinge. I think the producer developed this new system to make the production more easy. The easy setup system was part of the badge so there was no need to crimp the ball hinge as extra production step. The company probably developed this new system at the end of the war and did not manage to spread the badges to customers......
Best Regards
Pavel

[Norm F]

Hi Pavel,

Is it possible to see this particular minesweeper in closer detail, both front and back? It seems to have some finish already applied.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Pavel,

Are all the Wound badges exactly the same?

How about the KVKs, any markings on them?

Are all the Uboat spanges marked for Schwerin?

Thanks

Tom

[pavels_2005]

Hi Norm,

all this 5 badges are already plated. It seems they are only plated with gold color, but it is possible that the silver plating that should be applied in the middle disapered during cleaning. I did not notice any traces of the silver finish....


Tom,

all wound badges are same, the only difference is that some have perforated needle setups some of them not...
Crosses are not marked.
All U bot clasps are marked Schwerin Berlin

Best Regards

Pavel

[Thomas Durante]

Thanks Pavel,

Can we see good closeups of the KVKs, front and back? I am wondering if they will match up with W&L, Schwerin or Adolf Scholze crosses. Not even sure if any of these makers are identified as makers of the KVK, but lets see if we can find out for sure. If its a 4th maker, then that shoots my tri-maker theory down the drain, but I have a feeling it will match one of these makers.

Tom

[pavels_2005]

[Norm F]

Hi Norm,

all this 5 badges are already plated. It seems they are only plated with gold color, but it is possible that the silver plating that should be applied in the middle disapered during cleaning. I did not notice any traces of the silver finish....

Best Regards

Pavel

Thanks Pavel,

Since these are unfinished badges, I'd bet they never reached the silvering stage, but it's perfectly consistent with AS practise to first coat the entire badge in the coppery-coloured layer as we see here.

I'm surprised they actually reached this stage of finishing. That suggests they were really close to beginning production of this type at the end of the war. I wonder why they didn't just cast a catch in addition to the hinge block to save the step of having to crimp in a catch. Mind you, they used the same combination of cast hinge block and crimped catch in the U-boat clasps so they must have found this a successful method.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Wartime Collectables]

Fascinating threatd, any more from the original source?