BSW Pilot Badge

[Bob Hritz]

Hello all,

A local collector just bought this badge, very reasonably, and asked me to post this for authentication. I do not have any BSW badges so am at a disadvantage. I looked through photos and I can see that the wings, on this example, are much more cut out.

Any learned comments are welcome, after the 7 photos are posted.

Stats:

Weight: 33.60 grams
Height of wreath: 51.32 mm
Width of wreath: 40.83 mm
Wingspan: 63.77 mm
Pin diameter: 1.64 mm
Catch wire diameter: 1.46 mm

Bob Hritz

[Bob Hritz]

Photo 2

[Bob Hritz]

Photo 3

[Bob Hritz]

Photo 4

[Bob Hritz]

Photo 5

[Bob Hritz]

Photo 6

[Bob Hritz]

Photo 7

[Scott C.]

Bob, I'll go out on a limb here. Your badge dimentions (wreath & eagle) scale out about 1-2mm smaller than the reference I have (Military Advisor pilot badge article, summer 03), the cut-outs in the wing of your badge look deeper, the semi-rounded catch on yours misses the classic "?" shape, and overall, the detail is a bit soft (cast?). I may be shot out of the sky on what I've just written...

Scott

[VonStigler1]

Hi Bob,
It may be the pics, but this one seems to lack detail IMO. Also the measurements are a few mm smaller than the average original, making me lean towards cast fake. I could be wrong here but I personally wouldn't want it.
Brian

[mmiller]

Hi Bob,

Hard to tell for sure, but the barrel hinge looks a little on the 'thick side'....maybe not quite wide enuf, too. And I am talking very subtle differences. The badge is really close, if it off at all.

Regards,
Mark

[Tim Calvert]

Hi Bob,

Well, the wreath belongs to a second pattern Juncker......so that should set off some alarms! Now, some might go into explainations about shared parts, but for me there are just too many wrongs with this badge.

Hope your friend can get his "reasonable" amount of $$ back!

Thanks for posting a dangerous badge.

[Tim B.]

Bob,

It's close, but as Tim just said, it has a Juncker J2 wreath and there are too many other things that are just not right here. I would leave it alone as well.
Tim