Thanks Wild Turkey for posting your collection of wound badges.Hi Steve and Matthew,
The cutout wound badges were private purchase items. They were commercially made this way, and sold privately by the medals and orders shops to any wound badge recipient who wanted a fancier looking badge, and had the means to pay for one like this.
Best Wishes,
Alan
Hi there, they were die struck as cut outs. I’m unaware of any examples where someone took a regular wound badge and cut out the fields, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.Thanks Wild Turkey for posting your collection of wound badges.
They represent a lot of pain to be had.
If I were in the service this would be one reward that I would not like to earn.
Along with the Purple Heart !
Thanks Alan for answering my question.
Were they stamped out this way or did the medal manufacturer cut the backgrounds out ?
Alan:Hi there, they were die struck as cut outs. I’m unaware of any examples where someone took a regular wound badge and cut out the fields, but it’s not beyond the realm of possibility.
It is of note that the vast majority of wound badges, and all cut outs (to my knowledge) were 1920’s and 30’s produced. The wound badge wasn’t designed and instituted until well into 1918, and wartime made examples are incredibly hard to find.
The third Reich also made imperial wound badges, and many of these are maker marked with third Reich era marks.
There’s a term called “Hohlverbodet” which essentially refers to solid back wound badges (99% of imperial wound badges are hallow) and there are specific variants of the Hohlverbodet that were known to have been made prior to 1919. Though how to identify it is outside the realm of my wound badge knowledge.Alan:
Thanks for taking the time to enlighten us.
I assume that you would identify a wartime made example by the makers mark because there were only X number of makers approved as of 1918?
Thanks for that information. It expands on my understanding.There’s a term called “Hohlverbodet” which essentially refers to solid back wound badges (99% of imperial wound badges are hallow) and there are specific variants of the Hohlverbodet that were known to have been made prior to 1919. Though how to identify it is outside the realm of my wound badge knowledge.
As to the maker marks, I know that Juncker made wound badges during the war, but that’s about it.
No problem. And that is true, now try finding all three grades of the navy wound badge, AND their cut out versions. That would take us years to do. It’s on my list thoughThanks for that information. It expands on my understanding.
I have all three grades of the Army badge and the black version of the Marine badge. The Kaiserlichemarine versions in silver or gold seem to be very hard to find.