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WW2 US ARMY JUMP WING


Brandpompier
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I must say that I’ve handled a couple of badges in my day but I’ve never seen one made like this.

 

The back is foreign to me but I haven’t seen it all.

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I've handled a bunch of jump wings over the years, and I do not have a warm, fuzzy feeling about this one. The quality is REALLY bad, especially on the front of the badge where one would expect it to look the nicest. There are some serious flaws that make me doubt that this is a die struck wing. The pin and catch appear to be US made, but are not commonly seen on jump wings. I would not want this one in my collection.

 

Allan

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better photos (say in sunlight) would help.  Sometimes you can look TOO closely at a badge and every flaw, ding and stain becomes a red flag of dismay!  Especially when the lighting is bad and you get lots of contrast.

 

On the other hand, Allan is very much a voice to listen to, and I would pay close attention to his wisdom.

 

I do not collect jump wings, per se, but I do have a few. What I always try to do is first look at the risers.  They should all radiate (more or less) from the very bottom of the parachute and rise up to the shroud in equal measures.  Like the rays of a sun.  When casting, the fine detail of these risers are often lost and you will see that some of the lines converge with each over before reaching the bottom, are unequal or have gaps and breaks.

 

There are also some fine details in the parachute shroud itself.  Those details should be regular and the same for each of the panels of the parachute.  Again, that detail is often lost in casting.

 

The wings and feathers themselves often lose some definition when cast.

 

The sterling mark is of poor definition.  Again, the casting process tended to wash out the "sharpness" of the die strikes.  But its not like the STERLING mark is always that clear anyway. 

 

Frankly, I just cannot see the detail in your photo to know for sure, but like Allan said, I do sense some elevated level of heartburn on this one...  But if you take some better photos we can probably help you a bit more.  As I said, sometimes small flaws become larger problems than they really are.  You do have to expect some wear and tear on a wing, but its hard to know for sure.

 

Another thing to watch out for is when the clutch backs are ground off of a postWW2 wing and replaced.  When you have a non-standard findings, I always get worried.

 

On the other hand, these jump wings were made in the millions.  Unless it is an autobiographical wing associated with a nice oval, you can easily find a rock solid version with no doubts involved.

 

Best P

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I found a match to this paratrooper wing in my reference photos.  If you look at the tips of the shoulders from the back they both came from the same die.  They both have the same pin back assembly and both show how sloppily they were soldered on as both catches were soldered on crooked.  I agree that there needs to be better photographs to make a judgement concerning this paratrooper wing and actually having it in hand would be better.  The one in the reference photograph I have looks genuine but the uneven sort of bumpy blemished look of the rear surface of your piece is what is probably giving people pause.  However if you were to cast the wing in my reference photograph I doubt if you could locate the exact same pin back assembly and those crooks that fake these wings won't go to that much trouble unless it is one of those rare hallmarked jump wings that will fetch a bunch of money.  So your paratrooper wing is probably genuine.  

 

 

thumbnail.jpg

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One other point to look at, since the sterling mark is excised (pointing out) that means that the striker part of the die had the sterling mark on it.  Note that the sterling mark on your wings are not centered like the sterling mark on Tomonchi's reference photo.  See how the sterling mark on your wing is slightly biased towards the right edge of the wing.  This is a potential problem.  For example, with JR Gaunt fakes, the hallmark is often crooked in fake wings while is it aligned straight in vintage wings. 

 

The sterling marks on all the wings made from this die would be center aligned.  But in fakes, that isn't strictly true.

 

 

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Something else that could be noteworthy is the fact that the S and G look smudged.

 

I’ve never seen anything like that on a struck wing.

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