Kriegsmarine Zinc Imperial U-boat badges?

[paul w]

Guys,whats the general consensus on Imperial U-boat badges made of zinc?.Were they ever made of this material, 30's origin?Anyone got any pic's of one,or are they copies/repros? I've seen one or two on dealers sites and I'm intrigued as to their origin.Thanks for any help on this one,

Paul

[Gordon Williamson]

Absolutely no problem with these. Imperial awards were made throughout the 3rd Reich period as "replacements" so zinc Imperial U-Boat Badge are perfectly legitimate.

[Guest Rick Research]

Paul-- can you post scans?

The pin construction would be a good well to judge whether these were end of 1918 "war economy" badges or later replacements.

If photographic evidence is anything to go by, I'd say by the late 1930s 99% of the ones seen being worn were the hollow stamped fire-gilt Steinhauer & L?ck made ones, so if one is zink, I'd think closer to 1918 than 1944 is possible.

[Gordon Williamson]

Rick is absolutely correct, however some zinc Imperial U-Boat badges can be encountered with hinge/pin fittings which are typical of Third Reich manufacture. I think Thomas Huss has/had one such badge on his listing. I believe this one to be absolutely genuine mid-WW2 period manufactured.

[paul w]

Thanks for the comments guys. I've see one other badge similar to the one on Thomas's site and theres this one that Helmut Weitze has.I really like this badge,the hardware on the back looks similar to that you can find on some Imperial EK1's.

[paul w]

Back.

[JBeltram]

Hello,

Here is a zinc example that I used to own. I never could guess the maker.

Regards,

Jody