U boat workers badges

[ive]

Hiya.

I have seen various badges purporting to be those worn by workers at the various u boat yards/pens.

I have seen them only on eBay and at various collectibles auctions online.

They all have a big U in the middle and then name of the installation and a number.

There is one on eBay (UK) at the moment for St Nazaire. It's the exact same piece as was listed in an auction sale a few months back (it has the same marks, wear etc)

Are these fantasy pieces or are they indeed what they say they are? Were they faked?

Thanks
Ive

[compressore]

Yes, they existed and I am sure some members have and will post pics of them.
Those you are seeing on E-Bay are "mostly" fakes.

Regards
Christian

[ive]

This is the one on eBay...



Would fit in with my U-boat orientated KM collection i'm putting together.

Has anybody got pics of a real one?

[tgn]

Attached is a photo of a real U-boot dock worker ID badge. It is still on the KM overseas cap, pinned so the ID number shows but nothing else. I got this from a friend of mine about 25-30 years ago. He picked up two from a vet, one on the overseas cap and another loose one. The loose one was painted in the background like the one on ebay, so he decided to keep that one and gave me the other one with the cap.

[tgn]

Maker ark on the back:

[ive]

Cool, thanks for that.

The ones I have seen online have never had a makers mark at the back. There have been ones for St Nazaire, Palais and another base I forget.

Is the ID number unique to the person or does it denote the base? Yours obviously has a different number to the one on ebay.

I have seen a couple of badges with the same ID number (but that definitely weren't the same badge), i guess these were fales?

Are they rare and valuable - what is the going rate?, I'd like one for my collection

Thanks
Ive

[glaser]

The 1956 is fake indeed, some more fakes here picturedfake KMW ST NAZAIRE 1956 pin.jpg

fake KMW LA PALLICE 1293 pin.jpg