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My collection after (roughly) a year


Ray42
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Great collection!  I have been collecting DIs for several years.  I like screwbacks and pinbacks.  Across all branches.

If I find a nice one, I buy it.  The fun part is finding them in the weirdest paces.  For example with jewelry at flea markets.

Also, in non-militaria categories on ebay.  The hunt is the fun part.  I just found a 52nd CA D

ondero screwback on ebay.

It was under the Transportation, Railroad and Train category in Collectibles.  I guess because of the steam engine

on the DI.  Thanks for sharing your collection.

Pat

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Thank you. I agree the search is part of what I like most about collecting DI.  I feel like with patches it is really hard to locate new rare patches but comparatively easy to find rare DI for reasonable prices.  The only really great one that I have found in person is the hand carved Persian Gulf DI, but there are a surprising number of really great ones on eBay that go misidentified and overlooked. This 725th ROB pin which is one of the best in my collection was found on eBay under the trains category. Several of my new discoveries such as the Camp Crowder DI also came from eBay for as little as .99$. eBay is really great hunting grounds if you know what you are looking for.

 

It would be great to see what you have picked up sometime if you ever want to share it. 

725th pin.png

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  • 2 months later...

Hi guys, it has been a few months so I thought I would share some of the more interesting finds I made in the last 2 months which do not turn up that often. First group the noteworthy inclusions are the two Railway Operating Battalion DI on the top row and the two armored DI on the bottom, the best is probably the 78th Recon Group DI. This is not the painted version seen in the "Best of the Best" ASMIC article but I believe the enamel version is still a rare piece from a not too frequently seen unit from the 78th Div. 

 

In the second post the notable pieces are the 3 engineer DI which are pretty uncommon and the 2nd QM on the bottom which is a BB&B piece, a very sought after and high quality maker. 

 

Edit: I'm sorry about the pictures, I edited them to be right side up on my computer so I do not know why they are inverted again.

Pins1.jpg

pins2.jpg

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Now it is time to show some of the rarer pieces I have found. Up first is one that was difficult to put an ID to and is uncatalogued but I believe is a rare DI for the staff of 55 Rest Camp. From what I can find the 55 Rest Camp was a camp in Venice Italy operated during the war so that enlisted air crews could recover from the stress of aerial combat. The location was at the "Excelsior" hotel in Venice which is depicted in the bottom half of the pin. Skiing became a popular past-time in the post-war era and from some reading I have done it was a pastime engaged in by soldiers on leave. The individual I bought this from told me that after the war the Cortina region, which is a ski region very near Venice was used as a R&R location by the allies. I have not been able to confirm this but it seems to be depicted in the upper half of the DI.  It seems that post war when you see a lot of obscure DI popping up for small units the staff of this rest camp had one made showing the two main R&R activities offered as well as a view of their hotel base in the background. Overall it makes for a colorful DI of a neat design. Any input on the ID of this pin is appreciated because it is still a work in progress.

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Next is another rare pin that is listed in the ASMIC catalog as being for the 114th Signal Bn, I think this is actually the wrong classification and I think it is actually for the 114th Signal Radio Intelligence Company (or later the Signal Service Company). This Company was a small unit that monitored enemy radio activity to track troop movements, and they were the unit tasked with monitoring enemy communications in the Arden forest before and during the Battle of the Bulge. I read one account from a Vet where he said that the unit detected the German activity and build up and reported it but that the reports were dismissed. Not sure the truth of that but it shows how potentially historic this piece is. 

 

The evidence I have that it might be misidentified is that I noticed that I have never found any mention of the 114th Signal BN leaving the United States making it hard to have a German made DI, and that the 114th Signal Radio Intelligence Company (or Signal Service Company) information mentioned the unit had a DI.  Additionally, the Company was stationed in Germany throughout the occupation period and into the cold war.  I also found one site: https://usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&usarmygermany.com/Units/ASA Europe/USAREUR_ASAE.htm that shows a similar insignia as the DI for the 114th Signal Service Company when it was in Germany during the occupation.

 

Regardless of what unit actually wore this DI it is a really interesting design that is rarely seen. Again all feedback is welcome.

114th signal pin.jpg

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Up next is a unique painted ETO- strategic Communications patch type DI. I have no idea how the pin was made but it seems to be rather crude with the pinback set into the back of the pin as apposed to afixed onto it. The paint job is pretty good however and luckily it is still in pretty good condition. This is the type of theater made DI that I love finding and given previous reactions to some of my theater made DI I thought it would be a good one to share. 

ETO pin.jpg

ETO pin2.jpg

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BILL THE PATCH

Hey ray, nice pick ups, in the first picture up side down one, the hand painted German dui , I was going after that last week, or the week before on eBay. It went pretty cheap if I remember. Love the rest camp dui

Sent from my moto g(7) play using Tapatalk

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30 minutes ago, BILL THE PATCH said:

Hey ray, nice pick ups, in the first picture up side down one, the hand painted German dui , I was going after that last week, or the week before on eBay. It went pretty cheap if I remember. Love the rest camp dui
 

Thank you Bill, I realized the first one is upside down. I tried fixing it before I posted it but it seems to have not worked. And you are right the ETO patch was part of that group that sold on Ebay, I wouldn't say it was necessarily cheap but I am pleased with the price because also included was this great 573rd AAA pin, normally they have some paint loss but this one is just about perfect. Besides those two there were some other German made pins but nothing really special. 

 

And thanks, there is a chance someone could post next that the Rest Camp isn't an DUI but so far it passes the duck test. So since it looks like a DUI, is made like a DUI, and has the name of a military organization in the area the pin was made I'm going to call it a DUI.  

573 aaa.jpg

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In the July Sept 1998 Trading Post there is an article about the US Riviera Recreation Area. Provided R & R for EM only, and they had a patch. 

 

No reason your Rest Camp insignia isn’t a DI. However, it appears to be for UK soldiers, not sure if they had DIs, or unit metal badges. Above my pay grade.

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22 minutes ago, tredhed2 said:

In the July Sept 1998 Trading Post there is an article about the US Riviera Recreation Area. Provided R & R for EM only, and they had a patch. 

 

No reason your Rest Camp insignia isn’t a DI. However, it appears to be for UK soldiers, not sure if they had DIs, or unit metal badges. Above my pay grade.

Thank you tredhed, I will have to read that article because it sounds interesting. What makes you say it could be UK? The construction seems consistent with an Italian made pin and I think there might be a broader equivalent in the British Army for regimental crests but they look very different from their American counterpart and I could not imagine one being this colorful. 

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1 hour ago, Ray42 said:

Thank you tredhed, I will have to read that article because it sounds interesting. What makes you say it could be UK? The construction seems consistent with an Italian made pin and I think there might be a broader equivalent in the British Army for regimental crests but they look very different from their American counterpart and I could not imagine one being this colorful. 

When I researched it, the responses referred to UK troops. UK units are usually IDd only by number, not suffix. “Gunners and privates” are not US terms.

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Huh, thanks for pointing that out, I had not noticed that and you are right when I added British to my search I got a lot more results and it does seem to be a British camp. 

 

I'm still not 100% sure it is a british regimental crest however because from what little I know about them it is extremely different then the normal heraldry you see in a british design, plus most of those have loops to fasten them to to the uniform. I guess I should find some British insignia collectors to see what they think.

 

I am a little surprised you didn't comment on the theory for the possibly misidentified 114th Signal.

 

Thanks again Tredhed.

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That could be a possibility, maybe it was just a coincidence it is the right size to be a DI. If it were a souvenir then I wonder if there are more out there. Be great if I could find another that is IDed.

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Well since the Rest Camp DI ended up not being what I thought it was here is a great 61st artillery DI on a khaki shoulder loop that I found on a uniform at an antique store this morning. Honestly I think this could be the best bullion DI in my collection so far, the Japanese construction is very detailed. It is worth noting that this is the Korean War version of the DI because it has the oozlefitch added to the top left of the design. I may end up posting the rest of this uniform elsewhere on the forum later as I try researching it because the SSI on the shoulder might be Japanese made as well but I am not really experienced and can't really tell the difference. 

thumbnail_IMG_3578.jpg

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1 hour ago, BILL THE PATCH said:

Really nice, great find

Thanks, I have not seen a DUI that used the Japanese quilted silk construction before and liked the way they used bullion to accent it. I think it is interesting they only used a diagonal stitching on the smaller DUI as apposed to the X design found on the larger quilted patches. Unfortunately, the uniform only had one of them and there was no evidence it had a second, but I can't imagine these would have been cheap for a soldier to have made to only wear on his khaki shirt. 

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