Mess Dress Badge Fake

This type of badge is often portrayed by some badge dealers as being one of the rare 5th Battalion mess dress collar badges.  It is a half size representation of a Tiger and Rose badge and has either no fixing on the rear or has a brass home made slider that has been crudely soldered onto the rear. 

These badges actually come from leather photograph frames that were sold during and after World War One.The left badge is a correct 5th Battalion collar with lugs, the centre badge is fixed to the leather frame and the right badge has been removed from a picture frame and has had a crude slider soldered to it. 

The differences between genuine 5th Battalion mess dress collar badges and picture frame badges are: 

• Genuine collar badges are on loops, picture frame badges have crudely soldered brass sliders. 
• Genuine collar badges have a void between the field on which the Tiger stands, picture frame badges have no void. 
• Genuine collar badges have a Rose that stands out, picture frame badge Roses are flat. 
• Genuine collar badges have a large gap between the Tigers back and the Rose, Roses on picture frame badges rest on the Tiger’s back

This comparison shows a leather picture frame with bronze badge (centre), and a genuine 5th Battalion Mess Dress collar badge on lugs (left).  

On the right is a badge taken from a leather picture frame, fitted with a homemade slider and incorrectly sold as a 5th Battalion collar badge.