SMGM-0139 French Made Coastal Artillery Badge Damaged

An interesting study in what NOT to do when attempting a repair. It is easy to see that someone attempted to repair the hinge on this zinc badge using a blow torch with too much heat. Zinc has a low melting point, and you need to be experienced using a low melting point solder and solder iron to do this repair properly. The catch and pin/hinge are original to the piece and you could make a better repair if desired. However, the overheating damage will always be there. You can see on the front that the oak leaves on the hinge side are a deformed from this heat.  Well, it’s a rare French variant and has the original box, so it’s still a valuable collector piece, just at half the price! The box has some wear and damage to the one side.