My opinion is they are both original. The top sword reminds me more of an 1850 foot officer sword, The other appears to be an 1860 light cav officer. I'm way more familiar with the standard 33's, 40's, and 60's. Private purchase swords were offered in so many varieties by so many vendors, I can't keep up. Hopefully someone who's more into blades will chime in. Nice blade btw!

Many of you will be familiar with the Oneida County, NY National Army medal/fob. It is dated 1917 and presumably was presented to men who were drafted after the first draft registration day on June 5, 1917 and perhaps after subsequent registrations. This medal is listed and illustrated in Richard Planck's book and is listed in Small's. I recently purchased 2 examples of a different version of that medal.  This one is for "Volunteers" and dated August 1917. I have not been able to find and history about it. But you can imagine that the county realized the men (and women) who volunteered instead of being drafted should be recognized as well and the second version was thus established.   The volunteer version is also has Utica and "Unundadages" for the City of Utica and the Mohawk Indian name for the city.    Photos of both follow. The obverses are similar and the reverses of both are blank. There are no manufacturer marks that I can see. Several companies made medals in a similar style including Whitehead & Hoag.   Dennis  

The one on the lower right was the original patch. The one on the lower left is the one they switched to after being called "Yellow Scorpions " over Japanese radio.

I have a Naval Aviator Wing Badge by Robbins, with the cartouche style back mark that is engraved to the Aviator. It is dated 1937. Clearly, Robbins used the cartouche back mark well after WWI. By, the way, that back mark is the only one listed for Robbins in my 1931 Keystone Index catalog. John

What does the 530th patch look like?

Update about the dual visor situation, I took off the single visor (thanks Mikeym_us!) and sanded the dual visor housing a little bit.         I had some Olive Drab (RAL 6014) spraypaint leftover from an older project, after spraying it on some cardboard and letting it dry, it was too light compared to the helmet. For that reason I have decided, that I will color match it to the helmet.      

Dustin, Can you show an example of the left facing serif? Thanks

They are definitely British and look to be correct with the bright plating, I think it’s rhodium plated.   Get some more opinions,  on the scale of knowledge concerning this item  I’m a 6.5.   There are several 10s who will chime in soon.     

A stork making its nest in a chimney looks very European at least that’s the only place I ever witnessed this phenomenon.