BDM achievement badge in silver. Number 7757

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Hi all ,
havent posted for ages so here goes,
gort this lovely silver BDM badge the other day number 7757.
nice patina to the badge,
ive put photos on of some of my other badges as you can see the same finish between the silver bdm and the JM,
any feedback would be great,

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Hi,

I'm still on the fence with these high number silver BDMs. Your badge looks nice (as do the others you show) but I would personally need to see more supporting evidence for higher numbers. The BDM silver is an odd badge because it seems to have been awarded to very few BDM members.
 
Just a thought


If the silvers were not supposed to be issued in high numbers why is there a space for them in the award books,
There is a space for bronze , silver and JM,Isn't there?
 
Hi,

The bronze and silver levels of the BDM badge were instituted in 1934 as I'm sure you know but in the nine years to 1943 only 729 silver badges had been awarded. After that, there seems to have been a sudden acceleration and by Oct 1944 they were up to badge 3849. That doesn't leave much time to squeeze in a few thousand more before everything collapsed and this is what worries me when I see high numbers on these badges. Personally I'd be a lot happier if I could find out why the uptake of the BDM silver was so low/slow and why there was that sudden surge at the end. Seeing some authentic paperwork for a high number BDM silver in the 7000 range would obviously be useful too.
 
Hi Gary
i know you have your list of bdm/hj achievement badge numbers ,I need to give you a few of mine,
could I ask how many bdm bronzes by your records were awarded after October 44 out of interest,
cheers,
 
Hi,

The highest number of BDM bronze for which I've seen paperwork is 180470 which was awarded on 25.10.44. There is a surge with the bronze towards the end too and a possible reason for this is possibly the KLV. I know that testing for the badges (also the male achievement badges) continued while the children were away at the KLV camps so perhaps this might explain the surge in awards of the JM badge and the BDM bronze. However, it wouldn't account for the late surge in the numbers of silver being awarded and certainly not the very slow/low uptake of the qualification for the BDM silver prior to the early to mid-1940s. This "phenomenon" doesn't seem to have applied to the JM achievement badge. That was instituted in 1938 and the number of awards rose steadily but again, a big spike in 1943 which is possibly due to the KLV camps as I mentioned.

Any additions to the lists are always welcome!
 
I'm sure with your research you have handled and probably owned plenty of these badges,
so in your opinion is this a fake badge
 
No, my "thing" if you like are the regulations and primary literature. Sometimes they are all you need when looking at an item but these high number BDM silver can't be explained that way. I have only had two of the BDM silver in hand (see pic below for one of them). I couldn't tell you whether your badge is definitely good but the evidence (primary literature/paperwork and the lists of badge holders) is giving me strong hints that badge numbers as high as seven thousand need support in the form of documentation (award certificates, entries in an achievement book etc). If we can find supporting paperwork for a badge number that high at some point then I personally would be happier but that doesn't of course mean that your badge must by default be dodgy.

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