Kriegsmarine Beautiful RK Minesweeper Badge except .........

[RichardT]

I picked up a beautiful vaulted Tombac RK Minesweeper Badge with probably 95% finish remaining. Unfortunately it's been de-nazified with the details of the swastika having been filed down. It was still too nice a badge to pass on as the price was reasonable.

Richard

[RichardT]

reverse side:

[RichardT]

reverse with maker's mark:

[Gordon Williamson]

Lovely piece. Minesweeper badges are grossly underrated. Virtulally every important KM figure during WW2 served at some point on Minesweepers, including many U-Boat aces.

Nice piece and well worth grabbing.

[nesredep]

Hello!

I agree,nice good badge.

All the best

Nesredep

[Guest Darrell]

You can spot an RK a mile away ... something about that caramel colored gilt.

Edited March 23, 2008 by Darrell

[Paul R]

I dont blame you for picking it up! The denazification is barely noticeable.

[joetauchretter]

I dont blame you for picking it up! The denazification is barely noticeable.

Hello ,

Very nice looking badge , I do agree that they are very under rated as far as KM badges go . The pin catch looks like it was replaced at some time , IMO it looks like it was damaged and repaired or it was lost and this is a soldered on replacement ?

Best Regards,

Joe

[RichardT]

The pin catch looks like it was replaced at some time , IMO it looks like it was damaged and repaired or it was lost and this is a soldered on replacement ?

Best Regards,

Joe

It's just the glare in the photo Joe. It's never been replaced and the only damage to the pin catch was that it was squashed flat holding the pin down. In fact when I purchased it, I never even noticed that it was a marked badge. It wasn't until I got it home and pried the catch up a little so that the pin was free that I noticed the maker's mark.

Richard

[Martin W]

Richard,

i have noticed that sometimes the reverse hardware on badges can be damaged during the de-naz process especially if the swastika has been hammered,even lightly,with a blunt object.This appears to be the case here,from the photo's it does not look like it has been filed down.

Regards,Martin.

Edited March 31, 2008 by mwestley

[RichardT]

Martin, I think it may be a combination of both hammering and filing. I can see file marking on the front of the swastika, although not really visable in the photo and if you look at the reverse side of the swastika you can see a bit of damage which may have been caused by it sitting on an anvil of some sort while some one attempted to flatten out the swastika highlights.

Richard

[Martin W]

Richard,

whatever way the badge was denazified i'll bet it had something to do with the flattening of the catch?

Regards,Martin.

[paddywhack]

aaacchh i know how you feel!! my near MINT junkers aux cruiser badge is as i said was near mint barr the fact that someone very VERY expertly die-nazified it!!you have to look hard to even see the naughty swastika was ever there!! and yup the catch had been slightly bent to!!! SWEET badge!!!