MACV patches?

[AKC123]

Just dug both of these separately out of a large pile at my local surplus store. MACV patches but one looks modern or at least BDU era. Any information on why these are so different? Forgive the pics. They are on the seat of my car haha 

[AKC123]

[tredhed2]

The one on the left was washed and ironed multiple times; the one on the right has never been. They were also made by diff manufacturers.

[AKC123]

So these both appear to be original patches from the Vietnam era? You know more than me but it kinda seems like the one on the left is constructed differently 

[atb]

Makers would still make them even as colors and techniques changed to fill any need for them. The Army would continue to stock them as long as soldiers needed them. Soldiers eligible to wear them served long after the end of the Vietnam War.

[AKC123]

34 minutes ago, atb said:

Makers would still make them even as colors and techniques changed to fill any need for them. The Army would continue to stock them as long as soldiers needed them. Soldiers eligible to wear them served long after the end of the Vietnam War.

Ok that makes sense. So there’s no way to tell if one is from the period or made after to wear as a combat patch? 

[atb]

The presence of the "tail" on the reverse of the one that was worn indicates that there is a very good chance it is from the Vietnam Era. I don't know when these tails disappeared from the reverse of SSI. The one on the right is either fraying at the top right or that's the remains of a tail. 

[AKC123]

1 hour ago, atb said:

The presence of the "tail" on the reverse of the one that was worn indicates that there is a very good chance it is from the Vietnam Era. I don't know when these tails disappeared from the reverse of SSI. The one on the right is either fraying at the top right or that's the remains of a tail. 

It looks like that’s where a tail has been cut off of the one on the right. From what Iv seen even modern Velcro SSI in UCP and OCP have tails. 

[patches]

As the others said, both late 60s early-sh 70s, one heavily used, used on either a tropical coat during the 1969-71 period, (The U.S. Made Fully Embroidered Merrowed Edge Subdued patches start to show up for issue, or purchase and wear in South Vietnam around mid to late 1968, more and more like late 1968 into 1969. Or the used one was a combat patch on either a fatigue shirt or a field jacket, more likely a fatigue shirt in the 70s,even into the very early 80s, the early runs had broad merrowed edge borders as these are, and in some cases the tail was cut off by the manufacturer, or they glued the tail down, maybe others can say when they started to used brown tape to tape the tail down, what like in 1974???? .

[AKC123]

6 minutes ago, patches said:

As the others said, both late 60s early-sh 70s, one heavily used, used on either a tropical coat during the 1969-71 period, (The U.S. Made Fully Embroidered Merrowed Edge Subdued patches start to show up for issue, or purchase and wear in South Vietnam around mid to late 1968, more and more like late 1968 into 1969. Or the used one was a combat patch on either a fatigue shirt or a field jacket, more likely a fatigue shirt in the 70s,even into the very early 80s, the early runs had broad merrowed edge borders as these are, and in some cases the tail was cut off by the manufacturer, or they glued the tail down, maybe others can say when they started to used brown tape to tape the tail down, what like in 1974???? .

Thank you for the reply I appreciate the benefit of everyone’s knowledge. Iv seen a couple photos of supposedly original, although I don’t know enough to know, Vietnam era fatigues and og107’s with patches that appear to be sewn on with white thread like the thread on the used patch. I haven’t seen white thread used on BDUs in the 80’s but of course that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. 

[patches]

1 minute ago, AKC123 said:

Thank you for the reply I appreciate the benefit of everyone’s knowledge. Iv seen a couple photos of supposedly original, although I don’t know enough to know, Vietnam era fatigues and og107’s with patches that appear to be sewn on with white thread like the thread on the used patch. I haven’t seen white thread used on BDUs in the 80’s but of course that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. 

That White thread in my estimation was Khaki thread that just faded out, or that poorly dyed In In County thread, which would mean worn there in the RVN. In South Vietnam a whole lot of color thread were used to sew on insignia, mostly ODs and Khakis, sometimes to match the color of the border of the patch, like Reds, Yellows etc etc, but mostly ODs and Khakis. Some superior, some not, one type members interested in the period will tell us of what was lousy dyed thread, Blacks, Greys, ODs, Khakis, these faded real quick,

[AKC123]

Oh ok. Interesting. I both both mostly because I was curious and I’m glad I did. Learned something from it. I’ll probably offload the unused one because I find the used one much more appealing. Iv been sticking pretty much exclusively to late 80’s-2010ish uniform items so  this was a bit out of my wheelhouse. I appreciate everyone’s time