Bumper Badges

Back in the 1920’s- 1940’s when cars were not so streamlined and license plates were mounted on bumper brackets, specially made bumper badges for law enforcement personnel and government officials could also be mounted there so that their private unmarked vehicles could be used on official business. These badges were usually made of heavy bronze and weighed about 11 ounces. They are fairly scarce and missing from most badge collections. Illustrated here is one for a Milwaukee County Deputy Sheriff and a Wisconsin State officials badge. (Since most cops are uniformed military and war time was the only catagory that looked even close.)