Destroyer Badge by Friedrich Orth

[Steve Richard]

I have to agree that to my knowledge,Orth never produced Kriegsmarine badges in any material other than zinc,nor of any pattern other than that shown by Tom and Mike .The only exception I have seen is their later H.S.F.badge with the cast in hinge.
As the current owner of Mike's pictured Destroyer badge,I was very interested to see the X countermark on Tom's badge.Mine also has this mark,and until now I had not seen this mark used,(except on mine)and have felt was unique to Destroyer badges produced by f.o.We know f.o.badges marked with the square box stamp,and with the circle stamp are seen on many of the other Kriegsmarine badges,but is the X stamp only unique to Destroyer badges??Although only a guess I have always assumed these are an in house inspection mark ,but still find these marks interesting.
Best,
Steve

[Lorenzo Brown]

All in all, I am still not convinced.
Thanks,
Ron Weinand
Weinand Miltiaria

Well...short of a stamp on the back saying "Made in U.K." or "Hecho en Mexico"..I'm not sure what more it will take to convince somebody who wants to believe that the badge is good.

The information presented above is very compelling that the "tombak" Fo badge is a fake:

1) NOT tombak..but a whitemetal that is clearly evident on the wreath of worn badges;
2) poor details;
3) completely DIFFERENT dies than those used to make zinc badges. This would be unnecessary and expensive beyond need.
4) completely DIFFERENT hinge, pin and catch set-ups.

To me, all the evidence points to the buntmetal version being a fake.

[Frank Heukemes]

While explaining the "why" to somebody who still does not know these fakes is friendly, I don´t know why we should have to jump through hoops here. It is not a new fake which needs discussion because we are still in doubt, it is a recognized older one.
Ron, when still in doubt, bend your pin! As Tom pointed out, bends like butter. Maybe that will do it for you.

Cheers,

Frank

[Laurence Strong]

You can lead a horse to water, but....................I am not a collector of Km badges and I am not slagging the owner but given the arguments and photographic evidence

[Ron Weinand]

Destroyer Badge

Thanks to all of you. While I may appear to be somewhat steadfast in my position, I appreciate the input and will bend to the majority.
Ron Weinand
Weinand Militaria