Kriegsmarine E Boat Badge for review

[coyotecolo]

Please let me know if this is a good badge or not. Any thoughts are appreciated.
Thanks

[Norm F]

Hi coyotecolo,

Interesting badge. Can you also please show a view of the top hook?

As it stands it's one of two things: either the best copy we've ever seen or an original with expert surface preparation and refinishing. The cutouts of the swastika are more aggressive than on accepted originals suggesting some extra work there, and the lovely finish is not only different from originals but also the artist forgot to differentiate the color on the lower stripe of the hull.

Compare to the originals in this thread:
http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...d.php?t=682198

Best regards,
---Norm

[BubbaZ]

Well, really interesting badge... but for the moment I think it is just refinished on the obverse - surfaces are too smooth and colors too vivid - reason of that could be polishing off the remnants of original finish before the new finish was applied?
I also noticed something on the reverse as marked. Don't you think that those colors should rather be shifted - gilt on the wreath and silver on the deck?
Cheers,
Hubert

[BubbaZ]

I also compared it with two original Schwerin s-boots that I have and cannot see any differences in details except of what Norm has allready said.
Here is my unmarked zinc Schwerin 2nd pattern S-boot.
Cheers,
Hubert

[BubbaZ]

and here is my marked zinc Schwerin 2nd pattern S-boot for comparison.
Cheers,
Hubert

[coyotecolo]

Picture of the back

I've just got a picture of the entire back. What do you think?

[Norm F]

Hi coyotecolo,

You can see the problems here. The cutouts in the swastika are too wide and the usual notch at the top (red arrow) is gone. Furthermore the top hook is not correct -- the wire is too thin, lacks the tooling striations and isn't attached with the small base plate that is usually used.

From your previous photo it looks like there may be a smooth grinding ridge across the reverse below the maker mark, or is that just the lighting?

At any rate I still can't tell if this is a good fake or a heavily worked-over original that was stripped down, edges filed, new top hook applied and totally refinished. Either way, it has major problems I'm afraid.

Best regards,
---Norm

[JAndrew]

The things I notice about the badge in question vs. the other two shown is that on the two from Norm and Hubert the central "ribbon" at the botton comes to a sharp point as seen from the reverse and the upper rear corner of the rear cabin has a sharper angle where as on the other the bottom of the ribbon is rounded and so is the corner of the cabin. Both could be accounted for be hand finishing.
The other differences I see are in the cabin windows. It looks to me like the spacers between the windows are narrower on the badge that started this thread. Also on the Scwerin badges the forward window of the two on the rear cabin is just a hair taller than the rear window. On the badge in question they look to be the same height to me. These would be die characteristics and not finishing differences.
Any size or weight differences?
Having said all of this I am reminded of the excercise I recently went through with a hand finished HSF badge from B. H. and how much lighting and different camera angles can change things so my points should be considered with appropriate caution.
JAndrew