Study of Fake M1/70 HJ Honour badges (HJ Ehrenzeichen)
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Here is a back side of the badge and the better photo of front side.
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Thanks for the better pics. Added to the list.
And here is another. 9436 found on Alexander Historical Auctions:
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I joined this forum recently because I love the HJ and DJ stuff, I've been collecting for 25 years and most other forums if active at all done touch on this subject or cowtow to the sponsors. This exposition on fake RZM M1/70 badges is a good thing. I was thinking of buying one recently and started doing more research on them when I come upon this thread and to be honest I might have bought this one if Bob the owner of Collector to collector militaria would have responded to any emails, thankfully he did not and after more research I learned that RZM M1/70 wasn't permitted to make badges by RZM after 1935. It's sickening how many of these are trying to be passed off, but check out this one here. It is marked 9193 on the back... These are convincing fakes, if it wasn't known about the RZM discrepancy would there be any other issues with this badge? The 1's in the numbering are suspect to me also, often German 1's have no base so to speak like on this number punching.
Regards,
A. Kirchen
Regards,
A. Kirchen
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Hi and welcome to the forum. Thanks for adding this one to the database of M1/70 fakes. Anyone trying to pass off one of these M1/70 honour badges as genuine needs to know this:
It is demonstrably impossible for an original HJ honour badge with an award serial number in the 8000-9000 range to be from any maker other than Hoffstätter because based on primary sources and observations (early-issue original surviving badges are always by Hoffstätter) he had the sole contract for badges in that range. He marked his honour badges with "RZM 15". The only exceptions for this range are replacement badges but these would have a B in front of the award serial number i.e. B9445 and could be from other manufacturers.
Here's an example of the impossibility that M1/70 made badges in this range:
9341. A lovely original by Hoffstätter.
...but just six serials away we have:
9335 purporting to be by M1/70. This is impossible because as the sole contractor at this time, Hoffstätter made badge serial 9335, not M1/70. The real 9335 will be marked with "RZM 15".
It is demonstrably impossible for an original HJ honour badge with an award serial number in the 8000-9000 range to be from any maker other than Hoffstätter because based on primary sources and observations (early-issue original surviving badges are always by Hoffstätter) he had the sole contract for badges in that range. He marked his honour badges with "RZM 15". The only exceptions for this range are replacement badges but these would have a B in front of the award serial number i.e. B9445 and could be from other manufacturers.
Here's an example of the impossibility that M1/70 made badges in this range:
9341. A lovely original by Hoffstätter.
...but just six serials away we have:
9335 purporting to be by M1/70. This is impossible because as the sole contractor at this time, Hoffstätter made badge serial 9335, not M1/70. The real 9335 will be marked with "RZM 15".
Just a little more on this:
I track HJ honour badge award serial numbers that I come across for this project. The aim is to find the name and details of the original awardee but I also catalogue surviving badges. The primary sources from 1936 to which I linked in the post above say:
"The Reich Youth Leadership (RJF) has communicated that the delivery of HJ honour badges with serial numbers above 40000 will begin in the coming weeks...."
and
"Due to the numbers of requests asking why delivery of the remaining HJ honour badges is taking so long we hereby announce the following: a communication from the RJF states that the manufacturer is unable to keep up with demand. The RJF aspires to award all remaining honour badges by November 1936"
Logically, this is showing that Hoffstätter was the sole maker until he couldn't keep up with demand. As a consequence, other makers were awarded a contract to manufacture the HJ honour badge. Indeed, the first manufacturer I see in the early 40000s is M1/78 who is then joined by M1/120. M1/49 and M1/52 are only seen on later badges.
The logical consequence of the above information, Jo Rivett's forensic analysis of M1/70 badges, the fact that M1/70 did not even have a licence to make badges at the point where the RJF reported delivery problems and the fact that there are no known authentic M1/70 badges of any kind from the TR period is, in my opinion, more than enough to blow these M1/70 fakes out of the water when someone attempts to claim that they are authentic.
I track HJ honour badge award serial numbers that I come across for this project. The aim is to find the name and details of the original awardee but I also catalogue surviving badges. The primary sources from 1936 to which I linked in the post above say:
"The Reich Youth Leadership (RJF) has communicated that the delivery of HJ honour badges with serial numbers above 40000 will begin in the coming weeks...."
and
"Due to the numbers of requests asking why delivery of the remaining HJ honour badges is taking so long we hereby announce the following: a communication from the RJF states that the manufacturer is unable to keep up with demand. The RJF aspires to award all remaining honour badges by November 1936"
Logically, this is showing that Hoffstätter was the sole maker until he couldn't keep up with demand. As a consequence, other makers were awarded a contract to manufacture the HJ honour badge. Indeed, the first manufacturer I see in the early 40000s is M1/78 who is then joined by M1/120. M1/49 and M1/52 are only seen on later badges.
The logical consequence of the above information, Jo Rivett's forensic analysis of M1/70 badges, the fact that M1/70 did not even have a licence to make badges at the point where the RJF reported delivery problems and the fact that there are no known authentic M1/70 badges of any kind from the TR period is, in my opinion, more than enough to blow these M1/70 fakes out of the water when someone attempts to claim that they are authentic.
Thanks for the welcome, and I love the fact based reason that can be laid out for this badge as to why it is bad, although the sad part is that almost every "respectable" dealer has sold one of these fakes. Clearly there is hardly any of these guys who could be considered true "badge guys", because they are accepting this fake without question???
I agree. By now every dealer and auction house must know that the M1/70 is a fake. Argueing with them on forums staffed by dealer-friendly moderators is inevitably a fruitless and frustrating experience. Much better to let the diligent collector (and diligent dealer) find reliable information on a forum like ours.