RFC Cap Badge?

[McCudden]

Hi everyone,

I would be grateful if you experts could take a look at this cap badge and give me an opinion as to it's authenticity please. I know there are many copies around although I hope it's genuine because i bought it about 25 years ago in a junk shop.

Many thanks

Alec

[Sepoy]

Personally, I would be concerned that it is a "solid" badge and not "voided" (cut out) badge. I am also not aware of an economy version of the RFC badge like the Royal Engineers. As for being purchased 25 years ago from a junk shop, well restrikes were very common at that time.

I suggest you join and post this on the British & Commonwealth Military Badge Forum for a definitive answer.

Sepoy

[jay dubaya]

IMHO restrike, fake call it what you will. The RFC was one of the smaller units during the war, albeit it had grown extensively by 1918, so would they really need an 'economy issue' badge, also I'd expect to see a slider not lugs on a 1916/17 badge. If genuine unvoided RFC badges exist I'm yet to see one

Jon

[McCudden]

Thanks for your comments gentlemen. I still like it, even if it's a reproduction

Alec

[Staffsyeoman]

I agree. It's a dud one. 'Non-voided' Economy badges are a faker's dream. So much so, that forty odd years on, some people swear that badges which were never seen before the 70s (when faking exploded exponentially) are 'genuine' - even if they never existed - because they have had them for twenty years or more.

The clincher with this one - it's a known fake pattern - is that rectangle between the top of the 'F' and the base of the Crown.

[Old Owl]

I agree with all the above but also think that the the yellow tinge of the badge just gives it away as a fake. I know that some genuine badges can be this 'brass' colour, however the majority of genuine badges are more of a 'gunmetal' colour when polished.

[snapperxv]

I agree too brassy not a nice gilding metal, also patina too regular very similar to the 25th Londons that were everywhere a few years ago but that is only my opinion.

[JulianB]

Regardless of its solidity, WO records show that RFC cap badges had lugs !