SAS cap badge

[Mark K]

Picked this little sweety up today to add to my collection by far one of the most prolific special forces units in the world and one of my all time favorites. So now I will need to find a nice British issue sand colored Beret with the right back cloth to mount it on. It is I beleive a nice original badge and is maker marked J.R.GAUNT LONDON on the backpart of the blade will make a nice addition to my head gear and cap badge collection.

Regards Mark K

[Teutonicknights]

Cool THANKS for showing

[Adrian Stevenson]

Hi Mark, sorry I strongly believe this is a modern fake.

The badge worn on the beret was always cloth.

Cheers, Ade.

[Mark K]

That is a shame Adrian this is the one cap bad I would have loved to add to my collection and I never see them here for sale glad I did not invest a lot of money lesson learned !!!

Regards Mark k

[Adrian Stevenson]

Always be wary of JR Guant markings to cap badge sliders.

Cheers, Ade.

[Nige H]

Mark,
I have to say I'm with Ade on this one, in the trade there known as re-strikes as normally there new badges made on old tooling (which is pretty worn out) also a lot of the Modern repro’s are made from lesser quality brass which is also quite a lot thinner than the original wartime stuff, this means the impression made by the tooling is not as clear and as crisp as the real thing, as genuine badges tend to have very clean defined lines on the embossing and certainly has no ragged edges were the badge has been cut from the brass sheet during final stage of the stamping process.

Nige.

[Mark K]

Thanks Nige I must say I am very disapointed I did not pay a lot for the badge but it was the one commonwealth badge and piece of headgear I have allways wanted to add to my collection.

Regards Mark K

[goovernick]

I would respectfully disagree.. Gaunt slider badges are worn by Aussie SAS, stopped in 1980 when they were locally made. and are still part of the official British QM stores for SAS. They are not worn but are handed out , mainly to VIP visitors and so on . This is probably an Aussie one.

The British SAS 22, wore a Silver and Gilt metal badge on a maroon beret for the queens coronation and officers wore one on a peaked cap ( see men of arms series ) BUT these were silver and gilt and very hard to get hold of ..

[kradman]

There is also a Staybright Gaunt made SAS Cap badge issued in the 1980s as Goovernick says handed out but rarely seen worn and quite hard to find

[LucN]

In addition to Ade's answer: badges that ere marked J.R.Gaunt DOT London are modern replicas. Without the dot and showing a small font (total 11mm wide) it is perfecty original.