Very Old Texas Ranger SHERIFF Toy? Badge

[Erik in NJ]

When I dug this and saw it broken I immediately got PO’d at myself for not digging more carefully, but after cleaning and attempting a reconstruction, due to the severe fragmentary nature of what appears to be a quite heavy pewter or lead badge, it clearly wasn’t me.

I was able to recover the center and six points. One point has what appears to be a remnant of a brass pin in it. Many similar style toy badges on the internet but no matches. N.B. the square S in Sheriff and the wide X in Texas. Leads me to believe this is an older version and may have been stepped on years ago. Will try to recover more on next trip.

Perhaps someone including our resident toy expert Subterranean can ID this interesting version of the toy Texas Ranger Sheriff badge.

 

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[ToddsPoint]

Real ones were sometimes made on an old Mexican silver coin. Gary

 

[Erik in NJ]

Cool! Yeah definitely a toy but a very heavy one. Not pressed sheetmetal from the 50s or 60s--my guess is 30s or 40s (I meant old as far as these toy badges go). I can’t find a match to the typeface online. Sad it got so fragmented, but we scanned very carefully for more pieces. Note this one has six points. Not sure why 6 vs 5 points were used on different badges. Fun find anyway—I’m glad I was able to save it.

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Molewacker]

I found this on texasranger.org/texas-ranger-museum/popular-pages/beware-fake-badges






Texas Ranger “Sheriff” badge
Sold on: eBay
Manufacturer Unknown,
Possibly Japanese

This one is made of pressed pot metal and may date back to the 1950s or '60s (left). There were no “Texas Ranger-Sheriffs” or legitimate six-pointed badges.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Thanks MW! I think I came across this badge as well in my Google search. Mine does have the square S in SHERIFF and more open X in TEXAS. It's also got divots terminating each point of the star. I guess there were a number of different manufacturers of this style back then. You're right in that mine is also made of pressed pot metal. Was hoping one of the toy experts here like Subterranean might have a definitive ID on the manufacturer. Thanks for your post and taking the time to look on the Internet for it.

 

[Molewacker]

Thanks MW! I think I came across this badge as well in my Google search. Mine does have the square S in SHERIFF and more open X in TEXAS. It's also got divots terminating each point of the star. I guess there were a number of different manufacturers of this style back then. You're right in that mine is also made of pressed pot metal. Was hoping one of the toy experts here like Subterranean might have a definitive ID on the manufacturer. Thanks for your post and taking the time to look on the Internet for it.

Ah, just a quick search and now notice the "squareness" of your S - close, but no cigar!

 

[Subterranean]

Hi Erik, Your toy badge is the version that had "stones" in the ball tips and a horizontal pin on the reverse, with the braided rope edge. Authentic, genuine Texas Rangers badges are beyond extremely rare and command thousands of dollars by collectors. Yours was either sold on a card or in a western toy set in the late 40's-early 60's! Even though it was broken, the pot metal used to make it fell apart long ago. Here is an example of one in excellent condition. Cheers, Sub

https://www.ebay.com/i/164410317224...1291&msclkid=0052f247205219629a9aad8250319602

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi Erik, Your toy badge is the version that had "stones" in the ball tips and a horizontal pin on the reverse, with the braided rope edge. Authentic, genuine Texas Rangers badges are beyond extremely rare and command thousands of dollars by collectors. Yours was either sold on a card or in a western toy set in the late 40's-early 60's! Even though it was broken, the pot metal used to make it fell apart long ago. Here is an example of one in excellent condition. Cheers, Sub

Thanks Sub. Yeah I thought I'd broken it at first and was very disappointed. My best guess is ca 40s as I'm digging a lot of wheat cents in the same area mostly from the 40s. I didn't see any of the stones, but they were probably covered in mud and impossible to see. I thought perhaps the square S in SHERIFF would tell us exactly who the manufacturer was as I see many examples on the Internet but no match on that style S. Thanks again for your post.

 

[etex]

 

[Erik in NJ]

etex,

That's an exact match to mine and more complete! Nice to know it had all blue stones. Were you able to determine any additional info as to its source?

Thanks for posting!

View attachment 1883270

 

[etex]

No, I have no other information on it

 

[lenmac65]

Cool find. Not sure if I would have the patience to find all the pieces myself, but it might be fun to try. Good luck.

 

[Wildcat1750]

Nice patient recovery of all of those little 'puzzle' pieces...