Souval S-boat Badge

[Tom Yanacek]

Hi guys,

This is my first Kriegsmarine badge purchase for the new year: an S-boat Badge by Rudolf Souval. Although there will always be controversy surrounding many of these Souval badges, I have a pretty good feeling that this one was actually produced during wartime. What do you think?

Thank you & best regards,
Tom

[Jim Woods]

Looks just like mine! Real!

[Martin W]

Nice badge Tom,and one that i would consider to be a wartime compatible piece by Souval.The reverse set up looks just fine to me,as does the badge overall.

Nice find IMO.

Regards,Martin.

[Tom Yanacek]

Thanks for the comments, Jim and Martin.

Here is the new badge again (top) shown with another Souval badge (below) that I've owned since the 70s.

The badge at the top has remains of protective lacquer at the water area.

Best regards,
Tom

[Norm F]

Looks great Tom! Nice to have both catch variants.

Best regards,
---Norm

[BubbaZ]

Hi Tom,
Great RS s-boots you have
Cheers,
Hubert

[Ludwig]

Just what I expect from a war time produced Souval!

[Tom Yanacek]

Thank you!

My thanks to all for the additional comments.

Best regards,
Tom

[juoneen]

These appear to be actual worn badges. Souval made good quality designs, and I recall during the early collecting years , and souvals were all deemed fakes, one acquaintance collector of mine had a souval tank badge.Regardless of the popular belief all german collectors mostly shared (later being proven to have been totally wrong) he still refused to get rid of the badge,said it was just too nice detail... and rightly so, as it was truly a wartime badge , not sure he ever found out , as that was long before the internet, but yours are nice,and I could not discern which one was struck first (by sharpness of the strike, and wear of the die) Very nice find.

[Norm F]

I don't think after 65 years one can tell the difference between a lightly worn badge and an unworn badge with typically faded finish over time. Both of these badges are in excellent condition and could very well be unworn but just very old.

It seems surprising now that there would every have been a time when people considered ALL Souvals to be fakes. I can only guess that pre-internet folks didn't realize that Souval had wartime ads and and both PK and LDO numbers? Having said that, the perpetually unanswerable question is what proportion of "wartime compatible" Souvals were actually worn in wartime vs. part of his vast stock of wartime leftovers and early post-war assembly items -- 10%? 50%?...we'll never know.

Best regards,
---Norm