Destroyer badge for review.

[Overlord1944]

Please opinions.

[Overlord1944]

Pics 2.

[JAndrew]

Going to put my 2 cents in here. I think it is an original 2.02 Schwerin badge but I question the finish for the following reasons:

- The obverse wreath looks like it is worn down to the base tombac in areas but I don't see that much wear on the ship. All I really see on the ship is along the deck line. I would think that if the wreath were that worn then we would see more on the superstructure and waves.

- It looks like I can see 3 shades of gold color on the front and on the reverse, discounting the green areas, it looks like 2 shades of gold. Perhaps the front could be explained by areas of lacquer, areas of gold w/o lacquer and bare tombac but I can't explain the reverse unless it is a trick of lighting

- The ship is all silver. I see no traces of blackening. So it was either cleaned really hard or resilvered at some point or perhaps both. Also on the bow are some pretty deep scratches. Some are silver inside. I would expect all of these to be down to base metal.

So I think a nice original badge that may have had a little restoration.

JAndrew

[Norm F]

Hi Guys,

It's hard to be too critical of the finish on these slightly blurry photos and the lighting can make a big difference. Low natural light can cause the residual gilding to show up as quite flat like that sometimes.

I think it's likely an honest worn badge plus or minus some usual cleaning in the past. The wear and cleaning removes the dark oxidized layer on the reverse and ship so they look more silvery.

It's possible it was repainted at some point and then that finish was mostly removed but I can't be sure. More sharp closeups of the residual gilding in different lighting conditions may help to distinguish residual fire gilding from residual yellow paint.

But a nice original, nonetheless.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Mike Kenny]

Hi,

For me it's a nice original later tombak example with worn fire-gilt finish. The original fire-gilt is best evidenced on the eagles' wings, with probably 90% of the wreath being bare tombak. Given the distribution of the green verdigris, imo it's been cleaned in the not too distant past. It probably needed it in this case though (the verdigris was probably a lot heavier, as per the reverse top left wreath area) but it's still a nice example with some character.

Regards
Mike

[Giel VW]

Hi,

For me it's a nice original later tombak example with worn fire-gilt finish. The original fire-gilt is best evidenced on the eagles' wings, with probably 90% of the wreath being bare tombak. Given the distribution of the green verdigris, imo it's been cleaned in the not too distant past. It probably needed it in this case though (the verdigris was probably a lot heavier, as per the reverse top left wreath area) but it's still a nice example with some character.

Regards
Mike

I can only agree with Mike

[Thomas Durante]

I agree with Mike and Giel, looks like some original fire gilding left to me as well.

Tom