Rare! L/18 marked B. H. Mayer Kriegsabzeichen für Minensuch-, U-Boots-Jagd- und Sicherungsverbände.

[Adrian]

Here's one not often seen, an L/18 marked B. H. Mayer Minesweeper badge.

Made in zinc as all Minesweeper badges were from this maker, the finish has all but faded or toned to a silver colour.

The reverse features a block hinge mounted on a rectangular base plate and a stamped sheet metal catch mounted on a round base plate. This is variant M2.8.9 on the Minesweeper Classification Table.
Mayer badges can be found with the maker mark on the pin, on the reverse of the waterspout or in this case, below the catch.

This badge had sat on Weitze's site for months and the photos there looked like it was covered in zinc pest so I held off hoping to find another but these are very hard to find for sale so I took the chance and purchased it just to obtain another variant.
I'm glad I did because the badge has no zinc pest and apart from the faded finish is actually in quite nice condition for a zinc based award.

[martinw]

Nice Mayer zincer.
I think that all L/18 marked zinc awards by Mayer can be considered uncommon.
I have a very rare L/18 marked Hilfskreuzer.

Cheers,Martin.

[Adrian]

Indeed, marked Mayer badges are incredibly scarce - at least, when you're looking for one. But there are very few in circulation or in collections from what I've seen, or not seen. You must have one of the only marked Hilfskreuzer badges, certainly it's fair to say one of perhaps less than five known?

[Norm F]

A nice example of M2.8.9. There are 9 variants of the Mayer based upon hardware and maker mark location and this is the last one (another example attached). As you say, despite the range of variations, the overall number produced is low -- no doubt made for the private purchase market.

Best regards,
---Norm