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Gold Parachute Badge L.G. Balfour Marked Serial #


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I recently acquired this unusual gold colored basic parachute badge that is marked LGB (L.G. Balfour) and serial numbered on the back. The seller thought it was a Navy parachute rigger badge. Would anyone know what this is and why it is serial numbered?

 

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To my knowledge most of these records were lost when L. G. Balfour was sold in 1996 and their operations moved to Texas. They now are focused on making class rings and not militaria.

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I have heard two theories about gold basic paratrooper wings. One is that they were private purchase retirement pieces made of actual 10 or 14 karat gold. The second story involved WW2 era paratroopers who stayed in the Army after the war and continued parachuting out of airplanes. Many of these paratroopers in the late 1940s and into the early 1950s were getting close to or had already jumped over 100 times. This was supposedly just before the authorization of the senior and master level paratrooper wings in the 1950s. Someone came up with the idea of a Century Wing which was gold in color. They were never authorized but supposedly made and worn until the senior and master level wings were authorized. However I don’t know what to make of your wing as it is not made of a precious metal nor is it from the 1950s. With a five digit number I would have thought that I would have come across one already unless they were recently manufactured. This is just a guess but I’ve got a feeling that these were made for Phillips Publications.

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Thanks. I was told that this came out of an estate of a Navy collector. The seller also had a separate L.G. Balfour salesman's sample display board with various examples of Army and Navy military badges and insignia. So it may be Navy related.

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I have a captioned photo of MG Robert Sink, CG, XVIIIth Airborne Corp, presenting gold wings and membership cards to new entrants into the Century Club, 6 August 1958. Jack Angolia

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Thanks. I was told that this came out of an estate of a Navy collector. The seller also had a separate L.G. Balfour salesman's sample display board with various examples of Army and Navy military badges and insignia. So it may be Navy related.

 

Could this be a prototype of sorts for Navy riggers as the USMC used to wear the silver dive badge and now they have their own gold dive badge and the Navy has as of a few years ago authorized the wear of a gold Master EOD badge in place of the silver Master EOD badge.

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Thanks again. It would most likey have to be made before 1996 when Balfour ceased operations in North Attleboro, MA. It's a very high quality set of wings with the parachute and the inside edges of the wings polished which makes the badge really pop. I've done some extensive internet searches and have not seen anything else like it.

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The serial number on it is odd. If there were really 72,436 of these prior to this one, most of us would have owned one already. It's not the "last four" like a laundry number. Could it be an officer's serial number, sans the "O"?

 

Hmmm....

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The serial number on it is odd. If there were really 72,436 of these prior to this one, most of us would have owned one already. It's not the "last four" like a laundry number. Could it be an officer's serial number, sans the "O"?

 

Hmmm....

 

That's possible. If it were part of a L.G. Balfour sample set it could be the item number from the Balfour catalog.

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I suspect you may have your answer already.

 

"The seller also had a separate L.G. Balfour salesman's sample display board with various examples of Army and Navy military badges and insignia."

 

The "serial number" may actaully simply be an internal product/inventory or stock number for the LGB company that was put on the back for identification purposes. This may be a "salesman sample" rather than anything directly sold to or engraved for a soldier.

 

The finish, color and hallmark are not like the typical commercial products offered for sale to the public. My guess is that you may be overthinking this whole thing. I wouldn't be shocked that if you had an LGB catalog or salesman order form, you would find that #72437 corresponded to US Paratrooper wings.

 

Patrick

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Thanks much, I've also asked the Chute and Dagger editor if he would have some contacts that can sheld some light on this fascinating badge.

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I had seen N.S Meyer pattern/sample boards from the late 40's and early 50's that had gold para wings like this made up for Central American countries.

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I had seen N.S Meyer pattern/sample boards from the late 40's and early 50's that had gold para wings like this made up for Central American countries.

 

Thanks, I'll have to pull out my copy of Bragg and Turner tonight and see if there are any simular Central American wings listed.

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I checked out Bragg and Turner, I didn't see any Central American parachute badges that looked like the one in my possession. But they do show an example of a "Century" parachute badge for 100 jumps.

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I've gotten a few comments by e-mail. Some folks have kindly pointed out that the Navy doesn't have a qualification badge for parachute riggers, i.e. aircrew survival equipmentman or PRs as they are known, they wear a rate. That I am aware of because I collect these rates. Someone questioned if the tiny hallmark actually said LGB. I think it does, here is a close up scan from another angle. '

 

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I've gotten a few comments by e-mail. Some folks have kindly pointed out that the Navy doesn't have a qualification badge for parachute riggers, i.e. aircrew survival equipmentman or PRs as they are known, they wear a rate. That I am aware of because I collect these rates. I also had someone question if the tiny hallmark actually said LGB. I think it does, here is another close up scan from another angle. '

 

 

 

I had the same initial thought...maybe it says "L68" instead. But the more I look at it, I'm pretty convinced it says LGB...

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I had the same initial thought...maybe it says "L68" instead. But the more I look at it, I'm pretty convinced it says LGB...

 

I can clearly read LBG when I look at the back of the parachute badge, but it's much more difficult to scan clearly. Unfortunately my camera is not equipped to take good macro photos. I hope to correct that soon.

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I contacted the Institute of Heraldry and they told me that there is nothing in their files that mentions the basic parachute badge ever being gold.

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Again, I suspect that this is only a sample made by LGB; the "pebbly" finish, the clutchback pins, and LGB hallmark all make me think this is not an actual badge intended to be sold to the public.

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I suspect your gilt parachute wing is nothing more than a recently made and likely mass-produced badge from China.

 

Take a look at the similarities between your badge and this currently listed gilt senior pilot wing on ebay (#231090563318).

 

This ebay listing depicts a Vanguard hallmarked knock-off.

 

Even though there's no number etched in the back, there is a five digit number (#32212) listed in the title description.

 

As Patrick described above, these five digit numbers are likely internal production or inventory numbers.

 

Russ

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/231090563318?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2FMilitaria-%2F13956%2Fi.html%3FLH_TitleDesc%3D1%26_nkw%3D231090563318%26_rdc%3D1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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If you go to the ebay sight of the gilt Senior Pilot wing, take a look at the other listings this China-based business has to offer. They currently have 60 pages of ebay listings with 50 different items for sale on each page. Each one of those 3000 currently listed military-related reproductions has a different five digit inventory number associated with it. Your Parachute Badge may have been produced when some enterprising militaria dealer presented this company, or a similar Chinese company, with an authentic LGB Parachute Badge for replication...and the five digit number found on the back was assigned for that specific order.

 

Just an idea...nothing more.

 

Russ

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Russ, Thanks it is indeed a possibility. They have parachute badge copies too, but they are not the same level of quality that can be seen in my badge.

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