What you say is correct Wim. But such an obvious error would have been noticed immediately in the Third Reich. The workers or producers, mostly people who still had experienced World War I had been brought up differently than today to bring the most accurate and best craftsmanship. Spelling mistakes were severely punished alreay at elementary school. Each badge was subjected to an inspection as a blank and samples had to be created for the strict RZM inspectors before they were issued ... and the RZM, as we know, has taken care of every little detail with great meticulousness. None of them should have spotted such an extremely conspicuous error? The employees at the time were much too careful for that. Today that's possible in Germany - back then it was hardly possible. After 1945, unfinished products from the time of the 3rd Reich were often found, as were the old tools and presses that made it possible to sell reproductions to souvenir-hungry GI`s. Were these badges produced after 1945? That would explain why the material is genuine. SS Totenkopf and other items were also reproduced after 1945 on the old machines and tools.
Hi Chlodwig
I don't want to be rude and sound like a dick...but it's going to be hard not to. Please don't take my comments personal.
Most of the comments in your previous posts are complely wrong so I don't really know where to begin. But here we go...
Like Wim already pointed out the badge in question is a pre RZM manufactured badge, which means it's manufactured prior to late 1933 when the RZM license was introduced. If you think that the introduction of the RZM license meant that every single RZM licencensed badge was flawless and exactly alike you are very wrong. I suggest that you take a look at the (so far) known original transitional RZM marked badges.
I think there were 6 known transitional makers of the Arbeiter Jugend badge and not one of their dies were alike! Different numbers of sunrays, different type of patterns on the "peebling", high/low horisonts, some show almost a full swaz others only show like a half, most with a hypen between "Arbeiter" and "Jugend" (another wrong and stupid myth) but not any hypen on the transitional Hoffstätter, different types of lettering (and space between the letters) and the different types of RZM logos and transtional maker marking (but that's another story).
The introduction of the RZM license was not about guidelines, inspections of the manufactures and quality of the products. It was about making money to the Party! After the introduction of the RZM license, the Party controlled the making of not only official badges but buckles, daggers, uniforms and pretty much everything else you can think of as well. Every single RZM licensed maker had to pay a fee to the Party to obtain their RZM license and of course they had to pay "provisions" of every item they sold... Some RZM licensed makers (like RZM 39 Robert Beck) did loose their RZM license but that was probably due to lack of paying their RZM license and not because of the quality of their badges.
As a German, You should know the meaning of "Gesetzlich Gesschutzt". That has nothing to do with any type of goverment quality inspection either? It's just a trademark for a patent equivalent to the English "Copyright" we see now a days on almost every single consumer product.
When you inspect any TR badge (or any other TR item for that matter) and try to determine whether it's an original or a reproduction, you really need to understand how the original item was manufactured. When it comes to enamelled TR badges, we know that they were die-struck. That's a very important fact! That means a die/dies were made for the production of any type of badge. These dies were made by humans...and humans are known to make mistakes for a number of reasons. They did back then and they still do this very day. You can find a lot of badges with die-faults...Take a look at some of the attached images. They are called "Prägefehler" or just oddities and are highly collectable among experienced collectors.
That brings me to my last and most imortant comment regarding "the spaces between the letters". That's just so wrong... If that's your critiria for an original badge you'll end up with a collection of modern reproductions. Equal space between the letters and exact same size and type of lettering are the most obvious signs of a reproduction!!! You will never find an original die-struck badge with these characteristics for a simple reason...The master-die was engraved in metal by a human. Some better than others but nonetheless all humans.
There are a lot of details to look for when you examine a badge and some details are not visible for the human eye... So that's why more and more collectors (and some dealers) have started to use microscopic examination (inspired by the pioneer Jo Rivett). When you use a microscope it's possible to see whether a badge is cnc-milled, cast from a die or an original die-struck badge (if you know what to look for).
Well... That's just my 2 cents on the badge in question
I hope I don't seem to harsh but I really had to comment on some of that wrong information in the previous posts. Some collectors might believe that nonsence and avoid nice original badges and end up with"perfect" cnc-milled reproductions instead.
Cheers
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