Air Gunners Badge

[olorf]

Hi, I have a badge here which I have my doubts about.. Bought a large loot from a collector, and some items appeared to be fake..

What could you tell me about this?








Thanks

[fdodge]

Your suspicions are correct. Not a good one.

[Thomas Durante]

Hi guys,

A VERY interesting badge! This is an FLL eagle and wreath and looking closely at the obverse, the wreath looks to be CUPAL with a silver plating and the eagle looks to be aluminum! There is a very rare FLL variant with this combination and I have to say that the obverse details look very good, but just heavily worn.

Ofcourse, the reverse hardware is horrible, but is it possibly repaired with new hinge, pin and catch? Rivets are also not like originals, but again, maybe its a repaired original badge. The silver finish looks to be on top of the hinge and catch, so that would NOT be a good sign for this being a repaired original, but then rather a clever fake.

If this one is a fake, then it will call suspicion on the rare Cupal ROAG that we know and think of as original at this point in time. Here it is, I believe its in Phil DeBock's collection right now.

Tom

[Thomas Durante]

Reverse

[fdodge]

Ofcourse, the reverse hardware is horrible, but is it possibly repaired with new hinge, pin and catch? Rivets are also not like originals.....

That's as far as I got with it.

[Steve P]

Well Tom, I would never have looked twice at this badge as original until reading your response and seeing your pics here. I still don't know if I would bet my life on it but that's a very interesting light you've thrown on it...Thank you, Stephen

[olorf]

Thank you very much again Tom.

[Karsten S]

Seems like the same type of pin and maybe even same type of rivets?

Cheers

Karsten

[George L]

On the first posted, the pin/catch looks like post war S&L to me. I don't know what to make of the badge posted by Tom. Not sure I'd want to spend real money on it.

[Patrick W]

I think the eagle on the badge is certainly an original alu one. Setup doesn't appear to be replaced plus the silver on the soldering would indicate that this is a postwar put together utilising original eagle and possibly original wreath. Had they worked out the rivits and setup you would have a killer badge!