Help/opinions needed: Para badge

[St.&L.]

Hello,

i'm not into Para badges but do know that there are some good fakes out there. So i need your help please.

What are your opinions on this one here? Is it possible that the setup/rivets and perhaps the whole reverse had a golden finish?

[St.&L.]

pics 3&4

[St.&L.]

pics 5&6

[St.&L.]

pics 7&8

[St.&L.]

pic 9

[Hans Kondor]

Original S&L IMO.

[Sebastien T]

Hello,

Nice S&L Para.

Seb

[St.&L.]

Thx for your reply, and what are your thoughts on the golden finish on the seutp and rivets?

KR

Markus

[Thomas Durante]

Hi guys,

Markus, I agree with the others that this is a perfectly fine, original wartime S&L Para badge. There are many variations of these S&L badges, but the all-zink type like the one you show is the one we are most confident was produced during the war. These have been found ground dug and in vets hands, so perfectly legitamte wartime example. Notice the "wartime dimple" on the pin too, very classic S&L wartime production in my opinion.

As far as the gold finish on the hinge, pin and catch, this is something we sometimes see on S&L Para badges. I still don't really have a good explanation for it, but if you have my Paratrooper Badge book, you can see traces of it on the badges I show in there, specifically the Type A & B shown on pages 346 to 353.

And it is perfectly correct to find the gold finish on the rivets. Almost all Para badge makers soldered the rivet posts on the back of the eagle FIRST, then applied the gold finish to the eagle (which also covered the rivet posts). Then the eagle was attached to the wreath and the rivet heads formed. Sometimes the rivetting action stripped all the finish off the rivets, but in alot of cases you can still see gold residual finish on the edges of the rivet head. This is perfectly fine and something to look for on original badges

All in all, a nice textbook S&L para badge. Has the typical grey subdued finish on the wreath and textbook, brass hardware and rivets. In almost all cases, the rivet material matches the base metal of the eagle (i.e., zink rivets were used with zink eagles, brass rivets were used with brass eagles). But a few makers line Juncker and S&L preferred to use brass rivets until the very end of the war, so its another good sign to see brass rivets on S&L Paras.

Tom

[St.&L.]

Thanks also here very much for yor excellent, detailed appraisal and description, Tom! That answered all my remaining questions!

KR

Markus