Hofstätter HJ honour badges marked FHB and RZM 15

[Garry]

We have discussions on this subject going back to 2011 and as I understand it, no consensus on the FHB badges has been reached. Both FHB and RZM 15 are for the firm of Ferdinand Hofstätter so it makes logical sense that we should see FHB on these badges. However, the question that needs addressing is why honour badge numbers 54, 86, 100 and 116 are marked "RZM 15" but later badge numbers like 547, 548, 1291, 1414 and 1982 all have the FHB marking. The highest FHB that I have logged so far is 3252 but just 105 award serials later we are back to RZM 15 on badge number 3357. It seems clear that the FHB logo was only used very early on but is the current consensus that the FHB badges are genuine? I would think so but is there any other research out there?

 

[Vidar]

We have discussions on this subject going back to 2011 and as I understand it, no consensus on the FHB badges has been reached. Both FHB and RZM 15 are for the firm of Ferdinand Hofstätter so it makes logical sense that we should see FHB on these badges. However, the question that needs addressing is why honour badge numbers 54, 86, 100 and 116 are marked "RZM 15" but later badge numbers like 547, 548, 1291, 1414 and 1982 all have the FHB marking. The highest FHB that I have logged so far is 3252 but just 105 award serials later we are back to RZM 15 on badge number 3357. It seems clear that the FHB logo was only used very early on but is the current consensus that the FHB badges are genuine? I would think so but is there any other research out there?

Did Jo Rivitt ever inspect the FHB badges on a microscopic level???

Cheers,
Adam

 

[Garry]

Hi Adam,

Jo made a post back in 2020 where he said that he had never looked at one but in his list, that we now maintain, he added FHB badges to the accepted list at some point. This should mean that he was convinced of their authenticity but I don't remember him ever actually stating that, Sadly he is no longer in the hobby so I don't think any more info will be forthcoming from him. @Wim Vangossum is very good with the honour badges and may be able to add valuable input here so I hope that he sees this thread.