Military Badge Collecting
Introduction
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Where Can You Find Cap Badges ?
Junk/House Clearance Shops - Badges are often found in these shops because at some point in time every family has a member in the army. When the member of the family dies the relatives often sell the contents of their house to a probate or house clearance firm, this quite often includes their Regimental Cap Badge.
Antique Shops - Antique dealers may buy collections of cap badges to sell in their shops as the hobby is becoming increasingly popular.
Car Boot Sales - When the family clear out the junk in their loft Grandad's Army badge is often put out with it. It is not, however, as common to find good quality badges at low prices in a boot sale as it once was. The main reason is as far as I can tell that people now are realising that these things are collectable and will often hold on to them in case they increase in value.
Collectors Fairs - No shortage of badges here but they are normally higher in price. At an antiques and collectors fair like the ones held in Ardingly Surrey there are regular stall holders who have badge collections for sale that they will sell individually or as a collection. There are often rarer and more collectable badges found here.
Charity Shops - You can go to your local charity shops and ask them to keep aside any cap badges that come in to the shop and they are often happy to as long as they feel that they can rely on you to come back. It is best to buy any badges that they get whether you already have them or not as this will show that you are not wasting their time. you can always sell on or swap the seconds.
Auctions - Collections of badges do turn up occasionally at auctions but it is not necessarily the best way to buy them, it depends on whether or not you can afford to out bid the other collector present at the auction. It is more common for badges to turn up at auctions in amongst a coin or medal collection.
Family - Ask your family. You never know Grandad, Uncle or even Dad might have his badge in a cupboard somewhere. I have got a few of my badges this way. The main advantages of this method of getting new badges are that you are guaranteed they are genuine and they also have a personal connection.
Ebay - Ebay.co.uk is a good source of affordable cap badges but be careful if a badge is suspicious in any way, or the seller has negative feedback, don't buy it.
Prices Of Cap Badges
The price of cap badges varies greatly from around £2.50 (e.g. the anodised 'Queen's Regiment' badge) up to around £300 (e.g. 'The 24th County of London Battalion' helmet badge). It all depends on how collectable/rare the badge is and on where you are buying it from. Unfortunately gone are the days when you could buy badges at £1 a piece regardless. As some dealers tend to put the prices of badges up far too high I recommend that you buy a copy of 'Badges of the British Army 1820 to the Present', as the book contains a rough price guide at the beginning of the book, a good example of this is when I found a KRRC badge for sale at a boot sale for £15, F. Wilkinson values it at £7. I found the book to be a great help. Most of the common badges are priced between £4 and £15, I normally look at spending a safe £6 on a badge. One thing that I have learned is that when buying badges at a boot fair or collectors fair always barter, especially pick up on damage or tarnishing etc. and most stall holders will knock off up to £3 just to get rid of either you or the badge.
How To Recognise Cap Badges
When I go to a boot sale or collectors fair I always head for any glass display cases or jewellery boxes and look for the crown or laurel wreath, most badges have one or the other. You will, however, soon recognise the right sort of places to look into. Badges are normally made from brass or white metal (w/m) but some are silver or even plastic. Newer badges from 1958 upwards are made from anodised aluminium (a/a), I personally do not like them and do not collect them, I think they look cheap and nasty, but some collectors are beginning to. Plastic badges were made during the war, when there were metal shortages, and are quite rare, I have got two in my collection. Cap badges normally have either a slide pin fastener or two eyelets with a split pin to hold them on to the cap, less common is a brooch type pin or a flat button hole type slider (see below).
How To Recognise A Fake / Restrike
Restrikes are badges made from the original moulds after the badge's design has been disused. To be honest they are very hard to spot, I personally have not got enough experience to spot them yet.
Fakes are easier to spot as the quality of the badge is often inferior. In the cases of badges that use two metals in their design the fakers sometimes get the metals around the wrong way. You have to be careful though as some badges do have legitimate different variations.
As well as fakes it is important to look out for foreign badges. It is very easy to mistake some of the Belgian, Dutch, Italian or even French military badges for English ones. I have been caught out when I bought a Dutch Artillery cap badge in a collectors shop (below). As I only collect British, Canadian, Australian and other Commonwealth countries cap badges, I kept it only as a part of my militaria along with some Swedish badges. The books that I have recommended will help to check badges before you buy them. Also look out for badges such as the 1960s style Postman's cap badge. It looks military but is definately not.
How To Date A Cap Badge ?
Crowns are the simplest way of relatively accurately dating a cap badge.
A QVC is the name given to a crown design used during Queen Victoria's reign; there were several variations. The first is an angular crown, the second is a rounded crown and the third is a flat topped crown.
A KC is the name given to a crown on a badge during the reign of Edward VII, it is the Tudor Crown. This crown is a domed design and was also used by all the following Kings. The crown shown on the Royal Canadian Corps Of Signals badge in the gallery is a KC design.
A QC is the crown used after 1952 when Queen Elizabeth II was crowned. It is the St Edward's crown and is a dropped centre design. The crown shown on the Royal Engineers badge in the gallery is a QC design.
Things To Look Out For
Some badges have special editions for officer and sergeant's ranks, such as the 'Royal Artillery having a spinning gun carriage wheel. Some regiments even had silver badges made for their officers.
Storing / Displaying Badges
There are many different ways to display and store badges. I buy old cutlery boxes from car boot sales, gut them and then glue foam cushioning into them so that the badges sit in the foam and are not damaged. Some collectors use glass topped draws, bureau desks, wellington chests, tool boxes, safes or cabinets. It is really down to you how your collection is displayed. A word of caution though, once your badges start to increase dramatically in value you should make sure that your storage is secure. In some cases insurance is a good idea. Some Collectors choose to mount their collections in frames on the wall, however, some who do this cut the fasteners off of the back of the badge, this is not a good idea as it devalues the badge and makes it very hard to sell them on if it becomes necessary to do so.
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