Description
This is one of those curious items that fit in any woundbadge collection. It’s the so called postwar converted “chaplains woundbadge”. The name of this badge is obvious because of the christian corss in the centre, but it was not a badge intended for chaplains. The name of the badge comes from the obvious christian cross and the story that these were made after the war in a monastery by monks.
A small number of normal black woundbadges were converted after the war by cuting out by hand the centre, and then adding a christian cross. Hence the look and “christian” appearance. The story is that these were then sold as mementos to gain a little money for the monastery. The background of this story can be found in specialised woundbadge books and online on the various collectorsforums, like e.g. here:
https://gmic.co.uk/topic/2240-chaplain39s-wound-badge/
Estimated numbers among collectors run from a few few dozen made, to maximum one full box of black woundbadges, that ended up after the war in a monastery and were all converted. Either way, definately not many were ever made, making them nowadays a desirable and interesting curiosity for woundbadge collectors.
I havent seen any of these for sale in a long time and most are probably sitting in collections.
The condition is very good, but on the back the needle is missing.
These converted badges are hard to find and can easily be called rare.
