Andy Griffith Screen Worn Sheriff’s Badge

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

As you guys know I collect game worn jerseys....especially from Vol players of all sports. I also collect screen worn items from movies and tv shows. My favorite show of all time is the Andy Griffith Show and I just located a collectible that I never thought I’d find....one of his screen worn badges. It comes with a handwritten notarized letter from Richard O. Linke who was Griffith’s manager of 37 years. He states he got the badge in 1968 and it’s been in his possession since then. I’ll do my very best to win this auction and if so, I’ll post more photos of this once in a lifetime piece of memorabilia.

 

[YankeeVol]

Pretty cool if you can get it

 

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

Pretty cool if you can get it

Yep.....I’ll make a serious run at it.

 

[Go aeiou]

Yep.....I’ll make a serious run at it.

Hmm, it is still a better show than anything else on TV.
Honestly, this reality crap sucks.

 

[Jxn Vol]

You need to nip it in the bud and get this....

 

[vol_in_ar]

How did it turn out doc loomis

 

[DEFENDTHISHOUSE]

I hope you got it, Doc.

 

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

I hope you got it, Doc.

Auction is Dec. 13th.....

 

[DEFENDTHISHOUSE]

Auction is Dec. 13th.....

Good luck.

 

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

UPDATE....the auction concluded today and luckily I was the winner. I’ll post more photos once it’s shipped to me.

 

[DEFENDTHISHOUSE]

UPDATE....the auction concluded today and luckily I was the winner. I’ll post more photos once it’s shipped to me.

Congratulations Doc.

 

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

Photos of the letters of authenticity from the estate of Richard O. Linke.....

 

[volger]

Congrats on another sweet memorabilia piece. That is a beauty.

 

[BenGrimm]

Pretty cool piece. That is honestly more impressive to me than the jerseys.

 

[pismonque]

That really is very cool. Can I have it?

 

[VolunteerHillbilly]

Very unique item. Congrats.

 

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

Deputy Barney Fife’s screen worn badge. It’s in the Andy Griffith museum in Mt. Airy, NC....

 

[pismonque]

What a great show to own a piece of, one of the all-time best. The writing was so good and the characters so well-developed, you felt like you knew each character as an actual person. In fact, that was the basis for so much of the comedy— a lot of the jokes were not generic gags that could be dropped into any sitcom, but rather were based on your familiarity with the characters. The writing was so good though that it was still funny at face value if you hadn’t seen the show before but much richer as you knew those people more and more, which went a long way toward making it the cultural touchstone that it is.

Okay, I’ll stop. I think I could fill a dozen pages about that show without even stopping to collect my thoughts. Congrats, Doc.

 

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

Hey VolNation.....I’ve got unbelievable news concerning this badge. After over a week of searching thru photos and scanning thru about 200 episodes of the show, I have definitively and conclusively screen matched it to Season 8 Episode 11....Andy’s Investment.

I can’t tell you how incredible it is to know with certainty and to be able to prove this badge was used in an actual episode of the Andy Griffith Show. As of right now it is the only verifiably screen matched Sheriff Andy Taylor badge known to exist.

 

[508mikey]

Deputy Barney Fife’s screen worn badge. It’s in the Andy Griffith museum in Mt. Airy, NC....

makes me wonder what happened to the other deputy badges, when Goober and a couple others were 'deputized' in a episode ?

 

[DOCTORLOOMIS]

Photos of the screen match....Season 8 Episode 11

 

[NEVolFan]

From the photo of the worn badge it is not clear to me how you can say that is a match to the badge of the left photo... I cannot see any of the same trace markings that confirm a match.

 

[the_great_pumpkin]

Looks like a match to me.

 

[pismonque]

From the photo of the worn badge it is not clear to me how you can say that is a match to the badge of the left photo... I cannot see any of the same trace markings that confirm a match.

The star shield itself starts as a stamped/punched blank and would be largely identical to many other badges that came from the same die, and you can't depend on wear marks or flaws unless they were evident in the source photo. However, the words would have been engraved individually onto blanks and in the 60s would not have been computerized, so that is where the variation occurs that can be used to match. A badge made for a show today would be much harder to authenticate in that way.

I'm sure it's possible for a skilled person to craft a credible forgery from archival still photos or screen grabs but it would take a good bit of time and effort to play it off to a discerning eye and I can't imagine there's a reasonable margin or risk there at this price point. Still, that's where the strength of provenance comes in.

Looks like a solid match to me.

 

[golfballs]

Doc Loomis is one of the more interesting characters on this board...