Unknown U-Boat ?

[Frank Heukemes]

Dear Mike,

I am fully aware that the eagles are different in style, as I said e.g. cut out swaz vs. non cut out. And you are right about the different eagle size, the eagles on the "SA sports badge style" SC is much bigger, in fact they cover part of the sword´s hilt! But what was really important to point out, is that the BODY of the cross, with the unusually big swastka disc is the same on the "SA sports badge style" SCs (one marked L/13) and the more "usual" L/13 SCs. So the connection is far bigger than the shared L/13 mark alone would suggest.

[Mike Kenny]

Dear Mike,

I am fully aware that the eagles are different in style, as I said e.g. cut out swaz vs. non cut out. And you are right about the different eagle size, the eagles on the "SA sports badge style" SC is much bigger, in fact they cover part of the sword´s hilt! But what was really important to point out, is that the BODY of the cross, with the unusually big swastka disc is the same on the "SA sports badge style" SCs (one marked L/13) and the more "usual" L/13 SCs. So the connection is far bigger than the shared L/13 mark alone would suggest.

Hi,

Frank, again, the body's of the two crosses in question (Franks and Jacques for ease of discussion) do NOT appear to share the same obverse characteristics, nor do the separate central swas discs (the tips of at least two swas arms on Franks example merge with the inner circle, whereas on Jacques the arms do not touch - Jacques type also has a significantly thicker outer circle and slightly thicker inner circle). On the body, the easiest difference to spot is the shape of the sword hilts from the reverse, however profiles can be hand finished, so the better way to see the difference is the obverse of the sword hilts - especially the very tips (Franks type has two raised lines between the nipple-like tip of the hilt and the angled beading, whereas Jacques type only has 1 raised line) and the perpendicular cross guards (the latter are ridged/ribbed on Yours but pebbled on Jacques) on - very different therefore different dies were involved imo.

Also, when I compared the eagles, I was ignoring the cutout v non-cutout aspect (hand-finishing) - I was looking at the feathering and the claws - again, different design (and because of the size difference) therefore different dies. So for me, all three die sets needed to make a SpanX are different. If Meybauer was the maker, I'd have expected at least one of the die sets to be the same.

The same with the U-boat badges - different dies involved between Gordon's L/13 marked examples and Philippe's badge at the top of the thread.

So comparison of two fairly uncommon (?rare) Meybauer badge/cross types with their "SA-Sports badge pin" counterparts to me indicate 4 out of 4 separate dies were used. Apart from the L/13 mark (an atypical mark at that) on the Silver Spanish cross above I still see no other evidence to point to Meybauer as the maker of the "SA-Sports badge pin" badges/crosses. I'm still open-minded on the maker but regardless of the maker, I still like them!

Regards
Mike K

[Frank Heukemes]

Ok, Mike, I can follow you now!