Destroyer, tombak with screw opinions.

[Norm F]

Another candidate with the same obverse design is the unmarked Souval post-war Destroyer. This comes in a variety of finishes and hand finished margins, sometimes stamped L/58, and shows the typical Souval hardware of the late 1950's to early 1960's. Like the Rettenmaier-attribute badges, they're not an exact match to the opening post in finishing and have much more heavily hand-smoothed margins, so it's hard to say.

Really, we haven't yet seen an exact match to the badge in the opening post.

Best regards,
---Norm

[DeMil]

Hi Norm F.

Thanks for your answers and well detailed pictures.

So the chance is big that this badge is a post war Destroyer ?

I have the badge in hand, if you need some more close ups ?

Regards

DeMil

[Norm F]

Hi DeMil,

Well, it would be nice to see some closeups of the edges of the badge (both of the external margins and the internal cutouts), but even so, I think all one can say in the end is it's a "wartime compatible" badge --- meaning, it could be wartime or post-war assembly with no way of being sure.

This applies to any "late wartime" zincer with atypical reverse setups or finish - whether S&L, Souval or Rettenmaier. It's a grey area in collecting which forms the basis of the now-famous quote from Chet Sowersby: "Real friends don't let friends buy zinc."

Of course, most of us still collect the "late wartime" zinc variants but we just have to accept the uncertainties.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

BTW, I just noticed that the title of this thread says "tombak", but to all appearances this is a zinc badge? If it turns out to be Tombak then I would be quite suspicious of post-war production since Souval worked in both media post-war.

Best regards,
---Norm

[DeMil]

Hi Norm F.

For me it seems to be in tobak but here are some new close up pictures.

DeMil

[DeMil]

1

[DeMil]

2

[DeMil]

3

[DeMil]

As you can see it is very thick !!!

[DeMil]

5

[DeMil]

6

[Norm F]

Hi DeMil,

Well, at least there's no sign of a casting seam at all. It seems well-made and bizarrely thick. I can't tell if it's Tombak or zinc with a copper flash coating.

We're no further ahead -- a mystery badge. To some collectors a mystery badge is an intriguing possibility while to others it's a red flag to run away.

Best regards,
---Norm

[DeMil]

he he.

Thanks for all your help Norm.

Yes "a mystery badge" and I will keep it.
Until some new information will surfuse.

Regards

DeMil

[Norm F]

I'm still leaning towards Souval. Here are two unmarked Souval badges in Tombak, both massively thick, felt to be circa 1960. Presumably by this time Souval no longer had any of their original wartime tooling and were peddling refinished leftover "R.S." wartime stock plus newer badges of this sort.

If the original vertical setup on the screwback Destroyer were known it might have told the story.

Best regards,
---Norm

[Norm F]

side-by-side