John R

This just showed up on a dealer site. We have talked about this before someplace--maybe 4 or 5 years ago. I think this is a fake and I think I see a casting line in the last image. All of these badges look very similar--sloppy to my eyes. Anyway, opinions requested. John

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As most of us know, Schwerin produced on different dies two different zinc Blockade Breakers--flat backed with the widely separated maker's mark (two lines) and the closely spaced maker mark lines on the dish back. Here is a nice example courtesy of collector Jeff:

Will PM you. John

Well, he was not too keen on it and he has been collecting MS badges for 20 years. However, somebody took a lot of time to make this reproduction--we add it to the list. John

Looks like one to me Darrell.

More images

Well, this one was found by a friend of mine in Kiel a few days ago. I have never seen a L/56 MS badge, but here it is for opinions. John

Does anybody know anything about these two badges? John

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More images for the data bank of this badge. John

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This was just posted on another forum being sold by a dealer. Described as a Deschler example. Personally, I find the finish too good for a zinc example of any badge. We have discussed deschler before as a possible maker but the evidence is inconclusive, at least to me. John

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Opinions?

Most informative Gordon. There is no end to what you can learn in relation to the complexities of the German Navy uniforms. Something as simple as the front seam measurement turns out to be not simple at all. In any case, thanks for the timeline of the caps and emblems. In this case, the seam is 5cm exactly. I do not think this is a Arbeitsm?tze since it appears, without tugging on the top, that it is attached to the black base ring of of the cap over which is the m?tzenband. In other words, it does not appear to be interchangeable with the blue top. I have never seen an Arbeitsm?tze so if an image of such a cap is available, it would be interesting to see. John

I have a white work muetze from the late 1930s--probably 1938-1939 for an engineroom rating on a cruiser. It has the cockade, but no evidence that an eagle was ever attached. The white cover itself is very worn and dirty so it clearly was worn by this sailor for his work duties and was not a walking out rig. My question is if all such caps were required to have the separate eagle or not. I am not sure about this as most late 1930s white caps had the eagle, but did the sailors always wear a cap with an eagle for their working cap? The rest of the cap is very worn as is the tally, so my question does not concern authenticity, just if the eagle was always worn on the working cap. Since the cap has a post 1933 cruiser tally, also in very worn condition, I am sure it was not RM, but KM, however, I guess the sailor could have had a pre-KM white working cap cover in 1939. John

I would have to say that this zinc badge would seem to fit a Schwerin with as much probability as we could assign in this case. Thanks for the example. In the case of the unmarked tombak U-boat badge naturally it is impossible to say who made it at this point in time, however, that badge is exactly the same as the marked example of that style--down to the soldering of the catch, burnished top wing, and neck characteristics of the eagle. To me the solder residue of the Schwerin U-boat badges is the fingerprint I would expect along with the high quality gild of that maker. My question has always been where did it fit in the timeline of these tombak U-boat Schwerins as there are at least 4 variations if you include the unmarked version. That is, two with the thin neck eagle and wire catch (which I think came first) and two (including the unmarked badge) with the thick neck and flat catch. There are more variations, but not common, ie, unmarked wire catch variation, but the basic types fall into the four I have mentioned. I have always felt the wire catch types came first with two different fonts, small and large, and then the flat catch thick neck with burnished top wing which the unmarked type also exhibits. However, did the unmarked come first, or second or was it interspersed with the marked depending on the day vice a decision by Schwerin not to mark the badge at some point. John

This fake was just posted on another forum for opinions. Do we have examples of the zinc version and what is the opinion here on this one. John

Then the tally would have been for the first K3. John

Then there should have been no tally for this boat since it went into service after the war started. John