Where are the owners who would want to make ceratin that their badges not be confused with this stuff from the ground. Have you any requests from owners Metallwarenfabrik to test their badges?
Very true really, if i had a few thousand invested in a badge, then i would want to know! The only way i would not want to subject it to a micro-test, would be if i was afraid of the outcome. I guess, when a few thousand are on the table, i can understand why a collector would be afraid. I wouldn't care though, as i broke a few thousand dollahs worth of badges up for my
book anyway, and i am constantly purchasing fakes to take apart and inspect. Each to his own though.
Requests, yes from friends, but i would turn down any request that came from outside Switzerland anyway. If you can afford €2500.- for a small badge, then you can afford (10%) the €200.- for a decent microscope and DO THE TEST YOURSELF. A microscope is also not a one-use implement either, so you could use it to inspect your whole collection, and really get your moneys worth out of it. I am not the "inventor" of Forensic science, or the God of Badge-forensics, i simply took an old practice and adapted it for my own needs. So i see no need to suddenly start offering a "micro-evaluation service". It is not my idea, and it is not a new idea either. It is just one that needs to be incorporated into our hobby if we are going to attempt a "clean-up". And seeing as any old Tom Dick or Harry can do the test, i would really feel quite embarrassed to offer my services to others in this area. Hell man, that would be like offering a glossy print of a self portrait of ME, for sale on my website for $19,95.- imagine that...
Peinlich!
And another, again on militaria321 and this time a bit more creative WITH a terrible looking case:
Gaston, this badge was posted already in May 2012
HERE, but with a different background color, so it may have changed hands by now