Month: July 2026
The Airman’s Badge Earned on Foot
How does a badge go from official to unofficial?
The Late Arrivals Club badge was created during the Western Desert campaign for RAF airmen who had bailed out, been shot down or force-landed, then walked back to their unit through the desert.
Their exploits became a valuable morale boost, and RAF public relations officer George W. Houghton gained permission from Lord Tedder to present them with a winged boot badge.
That permission applied only in the Middle East theatre during the campaign. Outside it, and after the fighting had ended, the badge was considered unofficial.
Fewer than 500 of the first type are thought to have been made. They were locally cast from aircraft alloy, with two loops on the back.
On this example, those loops have been removed and replaced with a German award stickpin, possibly from a miniature Panzer badge. German awards were often made in stickpin form for civilian wear.
It is a fitting alteration. The RAF men who earned the winged boot had been fighting Rommel’s Afrika Korps, so using part of a German tank badge to secure it adds a particularly personal twist.
A Naval Crown With Roman Roots
This week’s selection brings together a fascinating group of Merchant Navy and Royal Navy badges, including a Second World War service badge bearing the letters MN inside a rope border.
The badge may be small, but it represents the enormous contribution made by Merchant Navy crews during the war. Merchant ships carried food, fuel, troops and vital supplies across waters patrolled by enemy ships and submarines. The simple MN design became a quiet mark of service for the men and women who kept those routes open.
Another recurring feature across the collection is the naval crown. At first glance it looks like a conventional royal crown, but a closer look reveals a miniature fleet of sails, masts and ships worked into its design.
One of the larger examples shown here was used as a membership badge by the Royal Navy Old Comrades Association. More commonly, the crown appeared on Merchant Navy badges, cap badges and buttons.
The design has roots stretching back to ancient Rome, where crowns associated with naval victories were presented to successful commanders. Their decoration represented pieces taken from captured warships, providing visible proof of victory when paraded through Rome.
Over time, these captured ships and their fittings became stylised into the distinctive sails, sterns and mast-like points seen around the crown.
The naval crown had been used by Britain’s Royal Navy since the 1700s, but the Merchant Navy did not widely adopt it until after the First World War. Before then, merchant sailors generally wore the individual insignia of the shipping company or line they worked for.
That makes these badges an interesting record of changing identity. The earlier badges connected a sailor to one particular company. The naval crown helped create a wider sense of belonging to the Merchant Navy as a whole.
Also pictured are badges from individual ships and organisations, with anchors, ropes, ships’ wheels, waves and other maritime symbols picked out in enamel and metal.
They are modest objects, designed to be worn rather than displayed, but each carries part of a much larger story of ships, service and life at sea.
The Curious World of Cinderella Stamps
In philately, not everything that looks like a stamp was created to carry the post.
A Cinderella stamp is a small, usually perforated and gummed label designed to resemble a postage stamp, but with no official postal value. These labels have been produced around the world for advertising, fundraising, education, promotion and political propaganda.
On their own, many Cinderellas are relatively inexpensive. Found attached to an original letter or cover, however, they can add valuable historical context, visual interest and sometimes considerable extra value.
The group pictured includes six labels representing former Imperial German colonies and territories: Karolinen, Kamerun, Kiautschou, the Marshall Islands, Togo and German New Guinea. Each uses the same striking design, with a steamship at sea and the German imperial naval ensign in the foreground. Different colours distinguish the individual territories.
There is also a pleasing connection between their German subject and the name given to this branch of collecting. The Brothers Grimm published their version of Cinderella, Aschenputtel, in Children’s and Household Tales in 1812.
The other two labels show how Cinderellas could serve very different purposes during the First World War.
The purple St Dunstan’s label carries the appeal “Their Sight for Us, Our Help for Them”. It was produced to support the organisation’s work caring for servicemen who had lost their sight.
The far darker “Kultur Has Passed Here” label is a piece of anti-German propaganda. A mother and child lie beneath a burning town as an airship passes overhead, while a winged hourglass suggests that time is running out.
Neither label could have carried a letter. Yet both carried a powerful message, showing why Cinderella stamps can offer such a fascinating glimpse into the politics, causes and concerns of their time.
Halfpenny’s Hidden History
Most people who remember the old halfpenny will picture the sailing ship on its reverse. Fewer realise it represented Sir Francis Drake’s famous vessel, the Golden Hind.
The design was introduced in 1937, replacing Britannia, which had appeared on the halfpenny for generations. The Golden Hind remained on the coin until the final issue in 1967, and the halfpenny ceased to be legal tender in 1969.
Drake’s ship was originally called the Pelican. During his voyage, he renamed it the Golden Hind in honour of Sir Christopher Hatton, one of his principal supporters, whose family crest featured a golden hind.
Renaming a ship was no small matter. Sailors traditionally considered it unlucky, believing it risked angering the sea gods and bringing misfortune to the vessel.
Although the Golden Hind design arrived in 1937, older Britannia halfpennies continued to circulate alongside it. Bronze halfpennies, first issued in 1860, remained in circulation for 109 years.
The denomination itself had an even longer history. Official copper and bronze halfpennies were issued for nearly 300 years before the coin finally disappeared in 1969.
Do you remember the ship halfpenny?
A Market Find With Attitude
Small detecting finds make their way to Charing Cross Market most Saturdays, and this one is a proper curio.
It is a small solid hand, possibly silver, with the fingers clasped and the thumb pushed between them.
That gesture is known as the fig sign, or mano fica. It has carried different meanings in different places. In some contexts it was used as a charm for good luck, protection and fertility. In others, it was a rude or contemptuous gesture, so the meaning could change completely depending on where and how it was used.
That is what makes this little piece so interesting. One small hand could be a charm, an insult, a wish for luck, or a symbol of fertility.
There may also be a connection with the old phrase “I don’t give a fig”, though that origin is not certain. Some link it to the fig hand gesture as a sign of contempt, while others see “fig” simply as something small and worthless.
Either way, it is a tiny object with a surprising amount of attitude.