Long Range Desert Group badges

[James D.N.MacKenzie]

Hi Guys

I have always been interested in the Long Range Desert Group badges and shoulder titles as part of my special forces collecting, but have always been put off with the amount of fakes out there. Unfortunately the few books that have a photo of an LRDG badge in it do not go into enough detail for a collector to tell the good ones from the bad.

I have seen a few of these badges on eBay lately, many of them pretty worn down on the face, and am sure some clever chaps are taking a modern restrike/copy/fake, what ever you want to call them, and buffing them up until it is just brass left and much of the detail worn down, then selling them as originals.

I am hoping that there are some collectors on this site that have LRDG badges and shoulder titles that they acquired straight from a vet or his family and can take nice close up photos, back and front, for me. I want to start a file on originals that I can use to compare those for sale with.

Would appreciate anyone who has originals to email photos of them directly to me so that I can get a high resolution photo of each one, higher than the site would allow you to attach.

I just bought this set on eBay and would appreciate any comments on them from the more experienced collectors please.

Many thanks

James D.N. MacKenzie

SAM - Southern Africa Militaria

http://southernafricamilitaria.com