When did these start appearing Jo?
They didn't. Unfortunately lots of collectors today think that the faking of small badges dates back to the beginning of the Internet, and all fakes are therefore easy to spot as such. There are many not often encountered fakes, made long ago, for a market that did not consist of 25 million screaming collectors who go all gooey-eyed as soon as their favorite dealer makes a new Friday Update. The market was tiny back in the day, and i guess thats one of the main reasons why you wont see them, or only seldom see them. And, for the collector who only believes in recent mass faked small badges, a badge like this would automatically be "possible" or real based on that alone, because that`s what some collectors do, you hear it all the time on all the forums, "But this is the only one i have ever seen, if it were fake it would surely be all over the net.." AMEN, case closed, stamp of approval
It can be hard at times, and in cases, especially with multi-construction items, it is a mix or real and fake. Thats what i believe you are looking at here on
this badge, a genuine and worn HJ diamond in messing, inset into a fake casing with untypical Deschler markings (post-production
engravings imo) and a number, when we know, that these were not numbered and make from solid 535 Gold. So i guess even for the dedicated collector it might seem like a brain crunch, when the mind tells you that the badge you are looking at looks genuine, so therefore the whole package must be! But if you look closer, and think rationally, you soon see that it`s a two piece construction and must therefore be judged accordingly. The diamond is possibly genuine, the biggest surface area, but the rest is bogus. A clever fake i guess.
With this Jos Fuess marked badge it is even easier, as there are no pieces of Jewelery or items/badges made by them, that have their actual name on, so we have nothing to go on, except the item. You dont even need close-ups of this, the peeling border, the overall feel, the pin plate, the markings... the visible patina say`s it all really, well for me anyway. Would be great to have as an old fake, but not worth paying much for.