Royal Navy Ships Badges/Crests/Plaques

Please be careful when buying badge/crest for ships of the Royal Navy, all badges are Crown Copyright, and anyone selling them as a business is required to have an Ministry of Defence License and pay a 10% comission fee to the M.O.D. Anyone selling a badge that is from a personal collection would not have to pay any M.O.D. Fees. Ships Badges have to be painted in a certain way and must comply with the Sealed Admiralty Pattern. some official designs, date back to the introduction of Official Badges in 1919, and some shipsnames have only ever been used once, ie HMS Hood. Badges can usually be dated to a particular ship by the shape

The MOD requires samples of work to enable a license issued and they do not accept sub standard work, any original pattern badges would usually have the name of the ship stamped on the back,

Modern day Ships Badges were made onboard the ship by sailors and given away mainly by Officers to local dignitarys when the ship was on deployment, they are normally made of plaster and are mounted on Oak or Mahogany. Most ships in The Royal Navy no longer make thier own badges and they are produced comercially, this is why genuine badges command a high price, especially the metal ones with Bronze or Brass being the most sought after, and can fetch in excess of 200-300 each

Not all Ships in The Royal navy were issued with an official badge, so it may be that any particular ship you are looking for does not have a badge. T.P Stopfords Book, 2 Volumes Admiralty Ships Badges Original Patterns, details all the Official Badges issued to ships in The R.N. this is a highly detailed book with exceptional pictures of theOriginal Sealed Admiralty Patterns, it is alsoavery scarce book, published in 1986, and good quality copies fetch a high price

Any badge without a name plate or Naval Crown on the top is extremely collectable, and is usually refered to as a Boat Badge or Tampion, these are very hard to come by, and are usually the ones that fetch the highest prices. Imagine what a Gun Tampion from HMS Hood would be worth. A very good example of a Tampion that is on sale on Ebay at presnt is shown below, this is for the Cruiser H.M.S. Ceylon

Any member requiring advice on bidding on or purchasing a Ships Badge, please feel free to email me.

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For more pictures of Ships Badges please see my website

Admiralty Ships Badges (Google search)

www. ships-badges .co .uk