On Spotting Fakes
Posted in Patch Collecting by John E. Pannell on July 31st, 2007 at 5:16 am A hotel I worked at had posted in its back office area a list, from the local police department, of signs of potentially suspicious activity. The list was meant to alert the hotel staff to possible illegal activities being conducted by guests in the hotel. Many of the items were completely ordinary and normal, but when several were found together they might indicate some nefarious activity is afoot.
Now mind you, this was a rather nice hotel and not some seedy fly-by-night operation. However, it was on a busy interstate highway and drug trafficking was a concern. The local police requested the desk staff notify them if illegal activity was suspected.
With fakes, overruns, private issues and other items of dubious authenticity becoming common on eBay, I propose a similar list for Scout patches. No single item is enough to brand a patch unauthentic, but when taken together and combined with a healthy dose of skepticism identifying dubious items and sources can become much easier. This list is specifically focused on identifying Order of the Arrow patches.
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