FJ Badge Opinions

[hcliffe]

Opinions please on this badge. Good or bad? Picked it up at the local show for $50.

[hcliffe]

The front

The front

[skip]

Hi hcliffe,

IMO it looks pretty good, all the indicators for an original are there.
Can you see shear marks around the side of the wreath?
Do the eagles wings bend back towards the wreath there were they leave it?

Skip

[Frank Heukemes]

Hi hcliffe,

Possibly a good find, even more at that price. Most aspects indicate an unmarked zinc Juncker para. Eagle and wreath are Juncker.

The only things that are not textbook zinc Juncker para is the material of the flattened rivets (should be a yellow Buntmetall, not a white metal) and the round catchplate which should be an oblong one with rounded corners.

Maybe that is not too much of a problem since the most important things, eagle and wreath are ok. The broken off catch itself also looks like a Juncker catch.

Here is a textbook unmarked zinc Juncker to compare:

Cheers, Frank

[Frank Heukemes]

rev

[hcliffe]

More info

Thanks for the opinions so far. A few things to add:
1) The rivets appear to have been hammered, possibly an attempt to tighten the eagle which is a little loose.
2) The wreath has a small crack by the top rivet. Probably from the hammering.
3) Also, the eagle is two toned. Gold on the front, grey on the back. I was told this happened because the eagle is made of aluminum and it was dipped into a mixture to help the gold color adhere. Any truth to that?

[heinrich66]

Hello,

Frank your badge seems to be an umarked Juncker piece-but the eagle is quite different to pre-war badges (note the talons).
I own a juncker zinc piece with the typical juncker eagle.

Did the Juncker firm use 2 different dies for their zinc badges?
I believe parts of the Juncker firm are delivered to other Firms were the badges are put together!

Greetings

Heinrich

[Frank Heukemes]

Dear Heinrich,

Do you mean the talons are really different or are you talking about that typical handfinishing on many Buntmetall Junckers that almost cuts off the first "toe"?

@hcliffe: My badge also has a silver eagle reverse and a (faded) golden eagle obverse. It is not Aluminum though.

Cheers, Frank

[Bryan Poon]

Hi All

The 3 bars in the wreath bottom of hcliffe looks different to Frank's badge. Is this the problem?

Cheers
BP

[skip]

Hey, Brian is right, the ties at the bottom of the wreath get smaller to the right hand side, that is a bit strange, also the eagle is off centre but that could come from the hammering of the rivets if it was very loose.
What about a pic from the top, I would still like to know if the wings bend in towards the wreath.
IMO Franks is a Juncker were they have´nt bothered to file the Swaz around the talons, mine looks exactly the same and the eagle and wreath look just like the Buntmetal type.

Skip

[heinrich66]

Hello,

yes, i mean the cutting of the first "toe"- this is not a result of finishing the badge- it almost part of the die! I'll send some pitcures to Tommy- so he cann post them for me!

Greetings

Heinrich

[hcliffe]

Para

Thanks for the comments so far. I looked at the middle wing and it does bend back towards the wreath slightly. I do not see any "shear" marks on the outside of the wreath. The bands do look strange on the scan, but not so obvious if at all when looking at the actual badge.

[Yuri D.]

Harry's badge reminds me a lot of a badge that I've sold recently.

Yuri

[Yuri D.]

reverse

[hcliffe]

Similar

Yuri: very similar indeed! Two differences I note:
1) Your eagle sits lower. The swaz actually overlaps the wreath some, mine does not.
2) The back of your eagle is gold, including the rivets. Mine is not.