Lodge 413 Unauthorized / Fakes / Prototypes

Back To Main Issues Index

The introduction of unauthorized or reproduction insignia may seem harmless. Consider however, that these insignia have special meaning to someone, earned through perhaps years of service in an organization. Sometimes a person will produce a "private" issue purely for their own pleasure and as something to share with others. Unfortunately, there are others who modify or produce insignia with the clear purpose to deceive and defraud others out of in some cases, significant sums of money. A large number of these items first appeared well outside our service area, we are confident that they originated with some unknown person(s) outside our council.

We should be careful to point out however, that in a couple of cases patches are considered "private issues" since the governing body did not previously authorize them, but the individuals were very clear that the designs were for private distribution and NOT intended to represent an official issue. Many groups have a history of such private "friendship gift" patches even though they were not common to our lodge.

Until the mid-1990's, our lodge had no known rejected prototypes or overruns from our manufacturers, even though some probably did occur. Of course an occasional defective patch would slip through but these are typically only seen one or two of a type. In early 2000, a series of new flap designs was being developed, and a few prototypes were rejected. It appears at least a few of these prototypes entered the marketplace via some source outside our council. In some cases these appear to be just extras of an approved design. In a few cases they are modern reproductions of older or "high value" items that we are sure were produced with the intent to make a fast buck. The following information is provided to help others avoid being defrauded or otherwise confused by such items. Unfortunately, even the experienced collector is sometimes mislead by some of these.


YS3	QS1	ZS6	YS4	YS5

YS2	ZS5	ZS4	ZS3	ZS7

1973FF Proto	YJ1	ZJ1	ZJ2	YJ2

ZS8

Back To Main Issues Index