Does anyone know the period of use for these badges? Any idea of whether one might find out anything about who held a specific badge number?

S&W Badge

I can't figure out who they would be issued to. The only private recognized police force in the U.S. is the Railroad Police.

Interesting, maybe S&W had their security as their own PD.
In Fryeburg Maine every year for the Fryeburg fair a "Fryeburg Fair PD" is assembling.
Most of these "Officers" are actually retired LEO or come from other PD's and take a 2 weeks vacation to work on the fair.
Others are more questional charakters.
Anyway, the Fryeburg fair police does have arrest powers and are only existing for the time of the fair.
They do not have patches, batches or even an uniform on the other side. They wear regular cloth and traffic vest with "POLICE" on it.
My guess, the Fryeburg Fair is too cheap to spend money on this!

The Standard Catalog, 2nd addition page 288 shows a badge similar to the one on the right and it is labeled as an S&W "factory guard badge".

Bill

Would a private college (Vanderbilt comes to mind) police force, not be recognized also?
They have a fairly large private police force on campus, and the Metro Police Dept.seems to work hand in hand with them.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ..."ERIN GO BRAGH"

The badge on the left is a cap badge and the one on the right is a uniform badge. S&W has had it's own security personnel from at least when the current plant was opened, circa 1950. Roy, or Mundell, or C.B. could probably estimate the dates of the pictured badges. They are real, however be advised there are many fakes out there and they show up on ebay & at gunshows & auctions, so don't pay big bucks for any that you are not sure of the provenance or the veracity of the seller. Ed #15

They certainly look a lot earlier than 50's vintage. I'm guessing early 1900's and the styles are very different.
Paul

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"NUTS"

Its the other way around. The left one is for the uniform, the right one is a hat badge. And yes S&W had/has their own security personnel.

S&W had their own police force until the Springfield Police Department took exception to that fact. They subsequently referred to themselves as S&W Security. I have a complete uniform acquired from a former S&W employee after they became security.

Ed is correct in that their are many fake badges out there. I know, I own several. There are dealers at the sausage and beef jerky type gun shows that sell them by the box load and they are most likely made in China as opposed to the USA.

Roy would probably be the only one that could research a badge number. Don't know of anyone else that would have that information available.


PS: In comparing your badge to the one in the SCSW page 288, they look similar but not exact. It is possible that they are from different molds with one being the "old" style and one being the "new" style. The detail of the scrolling on the number "8" badge in the book looks more crisp and detailed whereas the one in your photograph looks "muddy".

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James Redfield
LM #497

Thanks for the comments. I had SCSW first and third editions, so had to order a second edition to compare with the picture on pg 288. My guess is that it is not a different die but just a result of some significant wear and lack of cleaning on mine versus the #8 badge pictured. The one pictured seems to have pretty much all the nickel plating intact, mine clearly has a good bit rubbed away. I always hate to bug Roy because I know he gets so much email/mail etc, but I asked him about them. He said they were used up until the late 70s, didn't say exactly when they began but Ed's idea of the new factory in 1950 might be the case. Roy said he had some also from "officers" on that force, Sgt, Lt and Capt. Seems like there might be an interesting bit of history here for a short Journal article for someone who lives around there to dig it out.

CB #487

If you have Images of America, Smith & Wesson, by Jinks and Krein look at page 98. Photo, Oct 1952, shows an officer in full uniform. Badges look similar with magnifacation.