From Patch-l: Possible Fake 227 R1 on eBay
Posted in Patch Collecting by John E. Pannell on March 7th, 2009 at 10:54 am 
Wetassa 227 ZR1?
Destry Hoffard recently reported on patch-l that a patch being sold on eBay might be a fake of the Wetassa 227 R1. The seller of this piece uses the lodge and council name in the title so the piece should be easy to find in a search. I will not provide a link here. I don’t normally lift images from eBay auctions, but sometimes break that rule in the case of possible fakes. The image from the seller’s auction is shown at the top of this post.
Mr. Hoffard has a lot of experience in patches and is very familiar with this rare piece. He is suspicious of the authenticity of this piece. The seller’s location in the UK is also an unlikely place to find an item like this. A known authentic example of this patch sold last Fall for over $9,000.
There are several differences between this item and the 227 R1 on my site. Authentic copies of this item were produced by a rather primitive silk screen process. The item in question appears to be hand painted on the felt.
Wetassa 227 R1
One of the more significant differences between the known authentic example pictured on my site (pictured right) and this one being offered is the beaver’s tail. It is significantly larger and at a different angle than on the copy pictured to the right.
Also, the lettering on the example on eBay is uneven, with several letters out of vertical alignment with others. See especially the “T” in Wetass and the “N” in council.
I am of the same opinion as Mr. Hoffard concerning this piece. Without some sort of documented provenance, I do not believe this to be an authentic copy of the 227 R1. Caveat emptor. My inclination is to label it a fake.
Popularity: 13% [?]
As I privately wrote back to Destry, I’m familiar with this seller as he tried to sell a fake Occoneechee J-1 a few weeks ago. He writes in poor English, another dead give away in my opinion. Definately not from Great Britian. Thanks to the e-Bay VeRO program,I got him stopped last time but he recently tried again by not showing the picture and asked for buyers to email so he could send them a picture as “eBay not letting selling this patch.” Someone bought it this go around before I could get it worked out with eBay to stop it…This is a shady character for sure.
Others have reported contacts with the seller of this piece:
The seller claims he got this from a charter member of the lodge.
The seller also reported the site of this patch as 102mm (about 4 inches). Authentic examples of the 227 R1 are 3″ round.
Devil’s advocate here…Could it be an R0.75? or R1.5? There is a R0.5 that has slightly different lettering than the R1.