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River Division 573


Constabulary
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Constabulary

A fellow collector bought this patch and claims it to be an original patch.

To me it looks like a recently mfg. fake so I told him that I doubt its legit. :blink:

 

Other oppinions?

 

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Constabulary

I found these pics at Lee Jacksons and these patches look legit to me other than the above

 

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River Patrol

It would not be for my collection.

 

Smyth/CC production. Originals are Japanese made.

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To expand a bit on what River Patrol said, the patches shown on the Lee Jackson Militaria website look like they were made for collectors at Cheap Charlie's shop in Saigon.

 

Based on the color of the yellow portion of the 573rd patch. I'd say that is good bet. The colors from that shop are very distinctive.

 

The shop made both patches for actual units and collectors copies. Often it is very hard to tell the difference as they were made the same way with the same materials. It was also not uncommon for collectors copies to be made of patches that were made elsewhere.

 

As for the first one that Constabulary has shown us, it looks like it was produced on a large loom computer controlled machine. Look how precise the lettering is. In contrast look at the black and white stripes, which are not as well defined as they are on the Vietnamese made example.

 

As repros go, this is a pretty sharp looking one. I can't tell from the photo, but if the materials and the thread look like they are synthetic, chances are this is a recent reproduction.

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river patrol, I would really like to see some of your patches.

please post some.

 

William

Sure...just define 'some'. IF you search the SSI & Patch Forum for the word Vietnam, you can see a fair number of my Vietnam patches. If you wanna see River Patrol patches, check out our new book from Bender Publishing entitled "River Patrol Insignia of the U.S. Navy, Vietnam (1966-1972)". It will be out October 1st, and 100% of the royalties are going to the PBR veterans organizations -- so I feel no shame in getting a free plug in where I can. Also, I'm working on a second Vietnam patch book currently....already close to 500 images. If you are looking for sources for REAL Vietnam patches, I suggest Scott Kraska (my co-author) at BayState Militaria and Bob Chat at Vintage Productions.

 

Cheers,

Steve

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It would not be for my collection.

 

Smyth/CC production. Originals are Japanese made.

 

So with other words the patches from Lee Jackson and the one I have shown in my 1st post are reproductions?

 

I´m not a patch collector but what is Smyth/CC production?

 

I haven´t heard fromn these books yet but I´d be interested in the patch books. Can you give me some further information? :w00t:

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Cecil Smyth was having U.S. patches made in Vietnam during the war, well right at the tail end of the war, and shipping them back to the states for collectors. CC is my abbreviation for "Cheap Charlie"....another source of patches being made in Vietnam, mostly for the collector market but anyone could get Cheap Charlie to "re-produce" a patch for them at minimal cost. So I lump all of these "types" of patches into one phrase...either Cheap Charlies or Cecil Smyth's production runs. Either way, they are copies of patches being made for collectors and not specifically for the unit personel. It's all explained in our book. Check Roger Bender's Website or Baystate Militaria website for book details come October 1, 2009.

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vintageproductions

The first patch shown is a original Vietnamese made river patch. Was it made by Cecil or one of the other countless collectors in Vietnam at the time? Probably. Cecil was not the only person having patches made in Vietnam, during the time for, collectors, there were numerous others, but not to the scale Cecil did. He had most made at "Cheap Charlies", but he used a lot of other shops also. Cecil started making patches for collectors in Vietnam, in the late 60's, and was still going up until 1975, as he was still living in Saigon with his family. There are some who condem Cecil for what he did and there are others who consider him a hero for collecting Vietnam patches. If Cecil, and the others didn't make these for collectors, real, used VN made pocket patches, would be rarer then Alamo Scouts, Merrills Marauder's, airborne patches, etc. I am working on a large article for ASMIC, to explain the fact & fiction of Cecil / Cheap Charlie patches now, so hopefully I will finish it semi-soon and get it pubished, it will then explain a lot more to collectors.

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