Scowen

Sorry, this is a fake from Poland. These never had backing plates.

Hi Roman, The badge itself is quite common, it is seeing it being worn in a picture that is rare. Another great picture, thank you for sharing it with us. Don

Hi Roman, Thank you for the extra information & photo. Yes a shooting badge from the Deutscher Reichskriegerbund Kyffhäuser (DRKB), the "Große Ehrennadel der Schießauszeichnung". Indeed this proves to be a doubly rare photo as it is also very unusual to see this badge in wear. I have often seen the lower grades (bronze, silver & gold) in photos, but not the large honour version 🤩. Here is my example, unfortunately it has lost most of the gold finish ☹️.

Hi Roman, Thank you for sharing this wonderful & rare photo with us 🤩. You say that Fritz Stratmann is wearing the badge in 1936. Is the photo dated on the reverse to show this? Also, may we see a close up of the round badge that he is wearing on his lapel please? Thank you again for sharing this picture. Here is a scan of my badge. Don

Indeed, you are correct Joe, I had forgotten about the different types of hilt. However what worries me is the filled in centre spaces, I'm sure that all the ones that I've seen have been cut out? It is unfortunate that the background colour matches the spaces in the obverse picture so it is not so noticeable....

Not a type that I recall seeing before....

Looks OK to me

Could well be…

Hi Joe, I have two more that I've now had for many years but after my last posting here. First Ges.Gesch, Æ Second, Ges.Gesch & the letter S surrounded by sun rays

Indeed, a nice collection of WHW pieces there. Thank you for sharing them.

No, I wouldn't say that the standard members pins are rare, they turn up fairly regularly. The honour pins you could say are scarce to rare. The leistungs abzeichen (as shown by Robert in post #1 on this thread) are possbily rare, especially the silver & gold grade (I've also seen a larger version of these which are very rare). The Deutsche Meisters are ultra rare, especially the silver ones of which I only know of one example..... Don

Hi Joe, The first and second pattern refers to the honour pins & are how Hüsken describes them in his catalogues, which one actually came first, I'm not sure. The first pattern in silver & gold just had a few leaves at the bottom of the badge whereas the second pattern, which only seems to be found in gold, is the rectangular version with the gold wreath all around it. See the picture below from Hüsken's catalogue showing these three. The dated badges were Leistungsabzeichen & referred to as Deutsche Meister. They were awarded following a contest. Does this make sense? Don

Indeed Joe. Just been through & deleted the double images on the first page. I didn't think that I had anything else to add but remmebered that I have two certificates, one for the silver honor pin & one for the gold....

I seem to recall seeing a picture taken at a conference or meeting which showed members of the audience wearing RDK badges. However I cannot remember where I saw it now.... 🤔

That's an interesting observation Joe. I had a check through the pictures that I have in my collection & only one of them show an anniversary badge in wear, a 1937 version 25 year badge...

It wouldn't surprise me at all....

Found a clearer picture of the honour badge...

I'm not sure, as it's a long time since I looked into them. Looking through Hüsken, it shows the Honour, see below. There is also a smaller stickpin without the wreath, but with the green leaves above the shield, what this is I'm not sure. Also, it looks as though the various regions had their own meisters as well... These gold & silver ones from Bavaria.

Thanks for posting these Joe. Nice to see the first type.

I hear you on both counts!

Personally I have no problem with Schmidhausler using this type of mark, for some reason they used a whole host of different styles, from the usual standard raised letters to individual letters being stamped out with a dot punch. However, that said I would be cautious if it was a different maker...

No Joe, that's still the only one that I'm aware of....

Very nice. Interestingly, until a couple of months ago I had never seen (or should I say noticed) the Siemans piece before, now this is the 4th one that I've seen. Don

👍

Indeed. I've also learned since this thread was originally posted that this piece came in two sizes! Don