British made CIB?

[David B]

Hi all,

Going by the pin assembly I'm guessing this is a British made CIB??

Many thanks in advance.

 

Dave

[Sivart]

Its certainly made to look like a WWII British made CIB, but I don't believe it's from that era. Much poorer quality,  softer metal,  different production style, wreath is wrong.  It's a repro in my opinion. 

[David B]

Yep I can't argue about the quality, it's certainly lacking. Very solid metal though despite it's appearance of being the contrary, definitely difficult to bend.

[Sivart]

I pulled out my examples that match the one you posed, they are the three on the left.  The three on the right are WWII era British IMO and all are makers marked.

 

Of those on the left, they range in pliability from soft to hard with the softest on bottom and hardest on top.  The top left badge is about as pliable as the three badges in the right column.

 

Interesting that none of them get the enamel color right, the top left badge looks painted?

 

Notice the similar tool marks on yours and the three in the left column.  Same indentations on the reverse, just to the 11 o'clock of the rifle stock.  Similar scratch marks on the "enamel" fronts, similar missing or thin frame at the top right when looking at the front.

[Sivart]

Also, here is another that uses a similar style of pinback, though it is unmarked and I'm not certain of its era.  Perhaps its the elusive Australian made CIB?  Still have yet to see one of those.....

[David B]

Yep those left 3 definitely match mine. I noticed the missing part of the frame top right and at first I thought it was broken off but obviously it's part of the die, as 2 of yours have the missing part.

 

So do you class your 3 as repros? I'm not so sure they are.

[Sivart]

The three on the left are repros. The three on the right are original.  In my opinion....

[David B]

Well thank you for taking the time out to reply, it's greatly appreciated!