Very early Excellent Artillerist badge

[Marcel Banziger]

I am pleased to share my latest Excellent Artillerist badge. This one is one of the earliest variations from what I understood. This due to lack of relief behind the red enamel. In the mid /late war variations there's stars or stripes/dots behind the enamel. In the earlier variations you only see a smooth enamel, making the red look very vibrant. For comparison I will also show my mid and late war variations. From what I understood this lack of stars/lines and dots is only with the Excellent Artillerist badge.

The early variation:



And the later wartime variations, left a short variation and on the right a longer/stretched variation:

[Marcel Banziger]

Another rather early piece which I just received. This one has the vertical lines underneath the red enamel. I think these came before the badges which have the stars underneath the enamel:

[Marcel Banziger]

And yet another variation arrived. Also one of the earlier variations without any relief underneath the center medallion red enamel. It's my 5th variation so far and I wonder how many variations actually exist??