Blue Airborne Command Patch

[HOF]

I have been offered to buy this patch, but have never seen one before. Is it real? Construction does looks good. I have seen a blue First Army Group, but not the Airborne Command patch. What is it worth and why was it made?

 

[HOF]

Here is the back.

 

[Patchcollector]

It looks cool,but it makes me wonder;what's the point of it being one color?Maybe a night jump piece?

[ocsfollowme]

Test sample comes to mind. Back looks legit!

[Sabrejet]

Well it was for sure made that way and not dyed. That's a real curate's egg (as we say in these parts)

[Steverino]

I would not touch this thing with a fork. If you will note, in the past several years there have been more and more "test color" patch variations coming out of the factories in New Jersey. My guess is that when the factory shuts down for the day, the boys get rambunctious and turn out all these pieces of fantasy to sell to collectors. It must be working because just today I saw a green and yellow Airborne tab - "experimental" of course. It's your money, but if you are thinking (hoping?) these are somehow worth collecting as "variations" lie down and hope the thought goes away!

 

patchJohnson

[JerseyDevil117]

Neat patch none the less.

[Bill Scott]

I think when you try to market a piece of insignia as a test item its pure BS.I have owned just about every standard variation of US made insignia there is on this planet.If I saw this or got this in a group it would go into my one dollar box.Call it what you will its a fake meant to deceive the public.Scotty

[doyler]

Great advice here.Listen well young Jedi.Bill and Patch are the Jedi masters and out rank YODA in wisdom and knowledge.

[Teamski]

I think when you try to market a piece of insignia as a test item its pure BS.I have owned just about every standard variation of US made insignia there is on this planet.If I saw this or got this in a group it would go into my one dollar box.Call it what you will its a fake meant to deceive the public.Scot

 

 

Even with the reverse that obviously shows the patch as WWII-1950's era? There is no doubt that you will see questionable patches on E-Bay that you know are fantasy patches, but this one is different IMHO. While I wouldn't put any great value on the patch, I still think it is legit.

 

-Ski

[tredhed2]

 

 

Even with the reverse that obviously shows the patch as WWII-1950's era? There is no doubt that you will see questionable patches on E-Bay that you know are fantasy patches, but this one is different IMHO. While I wouldn't put any great value on the patch, I still think it is legit.

 

-Ski

 

A) the "back" of a schiffli made patch does not always indicate when/where a patch was manufactured. Look at the backs of the fake "AMFOGE patches and their respective tabs" as well as the "555th PIBs". What's to say that the clown who made up the 555ths didn't change up the cables for this piece? It's not even a proper WW II cable color (if the color is correct on my monitor). Can we expect all sorts of patches like this is a rainbow of colors?

 

for the NJ clowns w/ access to schiffli machines, who make up "test runs" and "experimental" patches, it's just another way of separating a collector from his/her money. Too many collectors are gullible enough as it is.

 

C) As DoyleR says, my money is w/ the gurus on this one.

 

D) ASMIC members will enjoy a particular photo in the Apr-Jun 2014 issue of The Trading Post. It shows a run of patches on the khaki medium.

[B229]

And these as well?

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/6-WWII-2nd-Army-Training-Group-Patches-/370995916688?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5661146f90

 

Obviously there is no such organization as the "2nd Army Training Group", but I had assumed they were some sort of error or test samples, or some such. But are they, in fact, modern fakes?

 

And no, I didn't buy any of them.

[mshaw]

$120 down the drain. Maybe a training group of smurfs??

 

I agree with the others: Listen to Scotty and Patch.

[jw1969]

I would say: 'don't touch it'. I've checked one thing: the border of the patch

 

After seeing hundreds of patches, what appear to be very clear to me (or the front picture has to be of bad quality of course) is the width of the border. It doesn't seem to be even wide. E.g. at the bottom right of the patch the border is very wide (with an extremely wide embroidery line) and narrows to very small when going to the upper right.

The same can be said about the border at the left side of the patch but with that difference that it's very much wider over the whole length at the left side than the right side.

 

Another feature is the back thread of the canopy. I've several WWII AB Command patches and all were manufactured with a very regular back thread. This one seems odd to me. Some threads lay vertical, others are oblique (idem for the wings of the glider)...

 

May be too detailed but to me WWII are more regular in manufacture.

[HOF]

I guess I will pass on it. Thanks to all that responded!

[doyler]

One other thing tor remember.There are very nice copies coming out of eastern europe as well.From what I have seen they do not glow.Some 101st ones have fooled a lot of people.

[pathfinder505]

I was offered this same patch yesterday but passed on it.

[ocsfollowme]

Though this is more of the blue in the 2nd Army, this topic of this patch has been around a while too. As HOF stated...

 

[Teamski]

To say these are not period pieces is ignoring everything we know about WWII/1950's era patches. My gut feeling is that they are test run pieces to check the calibration on the schiffli machines. IF these were recent fakes, then why don't we see rayon-backed repros of just about every other WWII patch then? That would make a hell of a lot more money than simply kicking out blue patches. But you don't. The logic doesn't follow. No, I don't have any blue patches in my collection, so I am not trying to protect my interests or anything like that. These just scream period pieces to me.

 

-Ski

[vintageproductions]

I don't have a dog in this fight either but wasn't there a ASMIC article about the post-war War Games patches? If I remember correctly the patches were all one color ( can't remember if they were tan, blue or red).

[ocsfollowme]

No dog in the fight either.

 

What about the something like the 84th (blue with green border) that was ID'd this past Fall? Military school, summer ROTC or cadets attending a summer program (airborne, etc.)

 

Maybe they were meant for something (foreman's kids collection) or a test subject. If they were changing threads from one insignia to another, would we see small gaps in the stitching or a different color thread in there? It seems like these were made for a purpose...though active military wear is most likely out of the question. Not worth an investment to add to a collection but are 1940s/1950s period. The airborne blue is a funky blue color though...trying to see if that thread color was used elsewhere.

[Bill Scott]

The problem is these nothings are being offered to people as Rare test pieces at 700-1000 dollars each.If these were real test pieces dont you think rarepatchman would be all over them like fleas on a dog.I have owned seven or eight OSS spearhead patch that were from the test run in the 40s. I have never in all the 100s of thousands of patches I have owned over 35 years run into one of these in any collection or by itself.Patch Johnson is correct if you want to be parted from your money buy away.Scotty

[HOF]

I believe Scotty is correct. Below is what was told to me.

 

The blue patch was relayed to me as being experimental and very scarce. It was received from a lady whose father made WWII patches at the factory. The lady knew the patch was rare, because she only saw red ones on ebay.

 

My 2 cents: When I was learning to set lead type for printing, I would practice. I set my name and I brought it home. Probably something along those lines happened. Like learning to change thread colors and using a color that was not in demand and practicing.

[B229]

The problem is these nothings are being offered to people as Rare test pieces at 700-1000 dollars each.

 

 

I don't know about the other blue SSI, but the blue Second Army patches that I posted sold on ebay as a lot of six for $120. That's twenty bucks a patch. They had several other lots they sold previously for similar prices. Certainly more than I'd pay for one, but hardly an attempt to get rich by selling trumped up "rare" patches.

[Teamski]

OK, then we can agree that these things were not made for collectors, right? Everybody knows my opinion about over inflated patch prices, so there is no argument about these being of any great value. However, collectors just love to throw money at the hobby and dealers are always happy to take what is given them. However, for accuracy, we cannot call them copies or collector fantasy patches, right? I want to make sure that the collector community is informed of oddballs like these, including myself.

 

There is no way these patches were made in the last 30 years. No way.

 

-Ski