Reproductions & Fakes

As with any collectible, sooner or later reproductions and fakes will appear on the market.  Question is, what is a fake and what is a reproduction?  My rule of thumb is that if a badge is a copy of an original then it's a Reproduction; if it isn't a direct copy of an original, but has similarities to an original design, then it's a Fake.
The Cricketers:
The first time I was aware of Golly fakes and repros was when I saw some pre-war style Cricketers for sale at a very reasonable price (for 'very reasonable' read 'dirt cheap'!) in a shop in East Sussex.  I bought 4 of them but when I researched them I found they should have had the name of the manufacturer stamped into the metal on the back - mine didn't!?!  Oh well, they do look quite nice.  These Cricketers, as with their genuine counterparts, have a banner, on which Golly is standing, which displays the club name.  The easiest way to differentiate them from the real thing is their eyes, these are all cast down (no doubt in shame) whilst the genuine articles are proudly looking straight down the pitch obviously trying to faze the bowler!  (However, there's always an exception - the repro Middlesex batsman does have the centralized 'pop' eyes in both yellow and white waistcoat formats).

Robertson's produced 20 different pre-war cricketing badges with the club names on the banner, all of them with Yellow Waistcoats.  Hence, of the ones in my collection, most of the Yellow Waistcoat ones are Repros, but with a few Fakes, however, all of the White Waistcoat badges are Fakes - none of the Repros or Fakes have a manufacturer's backstamp. See also the odd New Zealand cricketer with a blue banner.
Footballers:
As well as the pre-war Cricketers, the Footballers have also come under the scrutiny of the forgers and fakers.  As with their Cricketing cousins, all of the genuine Pre-War Footballers had Yellow Waistcoats, hence, once again, I have a mix of Repros and Fakes.
Commemorative:
In addition to those above there are a number of other reproductions for the collector to be wary of.  I made a conscious decision to include Pre-War Repros and Fakes in my collection - provided they were extremely cheap!   On the left is a Repro Coronation Golly and on the right is a Fake 1930-1990 Commemorative.