GWL Pilots Badge Ques

[Spitfire]

Hello everyone

I know that some of the early Pilots Badges were made of German Silver or Neu-Silber. Does this mean Nickel-Silver? and if so, were the early examples of GWL Pilots badges made of Nickel Silver?

Any help on this ques would be greatly appreciated, I recently have seen a GWL Pilots Badge described as such for sale and I am thinking about purchasing.

Al

[Thomas Durante]

Hi Al,

Yes, its all the same thing. German Silver is the same as Nickel Silver. Neusilber is also commonly known as Nickel Silver, but that can be confused with the finish color of the wreath. For instance, Pilot badges have silver-colored wreaths which often advertised as Neusilber (New Silver) as opposed to Paratrooper badges wreaths which are black (Altes-Silber, or Old Silver).

GWL Pilot badges are only found with Nickel Silver wreaths, no zinc examples have ever been found.

Tom

[Spitfire]

Thank you

Hi Tom

Thank you for the fast reply and the clarification on neu-Silber for GWL Pilots badges as well as the information about altes-Silber. I have noticed on some of my Paratoopers badges this difference that you have referenced.

When looking into information on the Pilots Badges, I refer to an old article put together by members of our site many years ago and have been using this as a guide for determing authenticity of Pilots and Pilot/Observers badges.

I aslo did not know that GWL did not make a Pilots badge in Zinc but Nickel Silver (neu-Silber) only.

Once again thanks for the information, regarding the purchase of the badge in question, I am still sitting on the fence about it.

thanks, Al