Retaining hook facing in wrong direction on badges

[Richard]

I was wondering if anyone else has seen otherwise good looking and seemingly genuine badges that have the pin retaining hook facing to the left of the reverse of the badge rather than the usually seen right? If so, how common of an occurance is this?
Richard V

[George Stimson]

I'd say it's fairly rare. I have an Auxiliary Cruisers Badge that has that feature. And an EK 1. And maybe another one that I'm not recalling offhand. So there are not too many out of the total number of pinback badges that I have.

[Joe N]

Hello Gentlemen. I have an original GAB I dug personally, and I've noticed this is the only one like this I have seen. Sorry for the detail, hope the pics are okay. Wish I knew the maker.

[Eric Stahlhut]

I have a 'daisy' PAB in silver that has this attribute.

[Joe N]

I was wondering if anyone else has seen otherwise good looking and seemingly genuine badges that have the pin retaining hook facing to the left of the reverse of the badge rather than the usually seen right? If so, how common of an occurance is this?
Richard V

Whoops, sorry Richard, you asked for "good looking" badges, not a dug chunk! Hope it helps anyway,
Joe

[Richard]

Thanks for the information guys. George, interesting you should mention you have an Aux Cruiser badge with this feature as this is the same badge at issue. By chance is it an FO badge?
Richard V

[Richard]

Joe, I appreciate your input and pictures. When I said "good looking" I actually meant the term good in the sense of authentic and not the condition of the badge, so your badge certainly meets the criteria.
Richard V

[Chet Sowersby]

Richard,
I have seen left facing catches on PAB's, IAB's and GAB's. They and un-commond but not "rare' so to speak. I only collect Heer badges so I can't speak for the other armed services.

Chet

[George Stimson]

Richard,

No, my "wrong way" AC is by an unknown maker. (My "Fo" AC has the catch going the right way.)

[John F.]

Gentlemen:

I have seen the reverse catch on a couple of piece and found it to be odd. At first I thought that it was a repair job gone bad but then it dawned on me that maybe this was done for a reason…like for left-handed people. Any thoughts?

John

[Mike Kenny]

Hi,

I'd say badges wit the catch opening the other way are uncommon, but certainly not a sure sign of reproduction. I wouldn't pay any extra for one with this feature. Most solid "daisy" variant PABs have this feature. I've seen the odd unmarked IAB and GAB with the feature, some wound badges (L22s come to mind immediately) and the odd EK1. I doubt they were intended for left-handed recipients, but maybe they were assembled by a left-handed person!

Regards
Mike K

[skip]

You can find SHuco IABs quiet often with left opening catch as well.

Maybe the guy soldering the catch was left handed.

Skip

[Richard]

Thanks George. Mine happens to be an FO marked badge and I had never seen this arrangement before and didn't even know it existed.
Richard V