Bronze HJ proficiency badge M1/63 good or bad?

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Hello everybody,

I'm new to the forum and would like some opinions on this bronze HJ proficiency badge I own, I believe its authentic but with many fakes constantly circulating the market I would like to get some second opinions on this piece. I picked this up from a guy who apparently bought this with some other German badges in an auction sometime in the 80s-90s. If the badge checks out I would also like to know who it once was issued to if that information is available or possible to uncover.

Many thanks in advance

Brayden

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Hi there. There appear to be traces of black paint on the pin which would make this the black (Eisen) grade of the HJ achievement badge (in order of achievement, black was the first level followed by bronze and silver respectively).

We have an ongoing project HERE which aims to attach a name to as many male and female achievement and sports badges as possible. This depends on finding original paperwork which enables us to link a person to a badge serial number. It's a slow process but definitely worth the effort. Your badge serial number is not currently listed but I can at least say that it was issued sometime shortly after 25.1.1941 as I have a black grade badge serial 100265 listed which was awarded on that date.

Edit:

The font used for the award serial stamping appears to be the same as that used on repro badges that have been and are currently being sold by a certain website. See here for more on that: http://www.hj-research.com/forum/f2...hj-achievement-badge-serial-no-114452-a-5716/

May or may not mean that your badge is suspect so wait for more opinions.
 
Thank you for your response Garry, How can you tell the difference between a black grade and a bronze grade? I ask because the front has a worn copper color/bronze color and the back has almost more of a black oxidization color so I'm a bit confused on how to tell the difference:confused1: I went and checked out the ongoing project and its definitely worth the effort. To add to the project do I just post the badge grade and number or are you going to add it to the project? Thanks though for the information on yours :good:I at least now know it was made sometime in 1941
 
Hi,

It's sometimes the case that the black paint only survives on the pin but based on the pics that certainly seems the case with your badge. To add the badge to our list I would need some supporting paperwork that links the badge serial number to an individual. Here's an example of the kind of thing we look for:

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As you can see, we have a Landjahr ID booklet giving us a photo of the boy and his name. This is repeated on the certificate showing that he was awarded black achievement badge 8411 on the date shown. We can extract his parent Bann number from that certificate but in some cases we can also find his Gefolgschaft (and equivalent). The award dates of badges shown in original documents are very important because it is possible to identify repro documents by comparing the dates they give with the information in our lists i.e. if a document gives the award date of black (or silver or bronze) badge serial number 11478 as some time in 1942 this is immediately a red flag because that award date is impossible.
 

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I would not want this, and to me at least, the faint double numbers point towards a fake. (The double 63 is observed on other fakes you`ll find on this wonderful forum-and not seen so far on originals.) The serial number is also worrying, and very similar to a few of the M1/63 fakes uncovered so far.
I also don`t believe it was black, but that doesn`t mean it has not been blackened by some nutjob at some point. For me its a typical early tombak/unknown metal fake that`s been around a while.
 
I agree. That black could be traces of paint but could just as well be oxidisation/dirt. Looking at the style of the stamped serial I also see a great similarity to the fakes mentioned by Jo.
 
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