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[Larry S.]

After searching for many years I have finally acquired a RAC badge for Grover.

I really thought it would be easy to date it using the serial number,  but I can't seem to find any information, online, like you can for the AA badges.

Anyone know where to go for the info?

The serial number is 2355 and was made by'H. B. Sale Ltd. B'Ham'.

[Wittsend]

This plastic version came in around the early '70s as I recall or maybe late '60s. It's the style I got when I first joined.

I expect with GDPR that's rather put the kibosh on making "registers" of "club" members public, even if they are now dead and always supposing someone has computerised the records

You could try writing direct to the RAC to see if they could tell you the date of issue at least.

[Genem]

This plastic version came in around the early '70s as I recall or maybe late '60s. It's the style I got when I first joined.

I expect with GDPR that's rather put the kibosh on making "registers" of "club" members public, even if they are now dead and always supposing someone has computerised the records

You could try writing direct to the RAC to see if they could tell you the date of issue at least.

You can try but the RAC is now just a very commercial operation with very limited archives. About half the shares are owned by Singapore's State "sovereign wealth fund", the other half by a venture capitalist company.  Their reaction to your car breaking down reflects this. I left them a few years ago, after a conversation with the guy on the phone, who admitted that he was the ONLY person on duty in the call centre and that was why the phone was not being answered. Having waited hours in an airport carpark with a flat tyre some-one lent us a pump.... the RAC contractor rang to say he was setting out....as we turned in at the farm track, at least 4 hours after our first call to the RAC.  Over-priced and trading on their name, a standard business practise for companies being stripped by venture capitalists.

[Larry S.]

This plastic version came in around the early '70s as I recall or maybe late '60s. It's the style I got when I first joined.

I expect with GDPR that's rather put the kibosh on making "registers" of "club" members public, even if they are now dead and always supposing someone has computerised the records

You could try writing direct to the RAC to see if they could tell you the date of issue at least.

Okay... got some info!!

This version is the metal and plastic one and was issued between 1960 - 1973.  There is another version of it as well that had a plastic cover that went over the entire front, not just the center piece. 

The number - 2355 - has nothing to do with the date it was made or who it was issued to; it  supposedly means that the person the badge was issue to was given a 'road side help phone box key' - I guess not every one got them.  Those with keys are earlier ones evidently.

The only way to know for sure about when it was made is through the paperwork that came with it.  I have found one, like this one, that sold at auction, complet with its original box and paperwork, and it was dated 1961.

The one I got came with another badge, a Jaguar Driver's Club badge #1541, along with the grille bar.  The guy who sold them to me said that they came off his grandfather's Jaguar XK120 that he bought in the early '60s.  The car was totaled in a wreck back in the '80s - but they kept the badges, emblems and such.

I have contacted the RAC, hopefully they con confirm this info.

[Larry S.]

Here is the Jag badge I got with the RAC one.

[oilstain]

I have a metal one, marked V 438578 on the back, I bought at a car boot about 7 years ago near Torquay or only a £1!!!!
I think original but I have seen reproductions

[twomokes]

The key to dating RAC badges like these is the crown at the top, Correus's has the Elizabethan crown and the style was introduced circa 1954  and ran until as Alan says 1973, either an all plastic or as illustrated metal and plastic type, if you look at some of the First Overland pictures you can see them attached to the fuel can holders on the front. The type Oilstain posted is the earlier Georgian post war type and it looks like as original to me.

I yet to find a way of dating the these badges any closer to a specific year. As an aside with AA badges you can date those from the AA website for the earlier style which ran to 1967 before it too was replaced with a square one.

[Davidss]

...
The number - 2355 - has nothing to do with the date it was made or who it was issued to; it  supposedly means that the person the badge was issue to was given a 'road side help phone box key' - I guess not every one got them.  Those with keys are earlier ones evidently.
...

As far as I recall, the keys were standard issue at the time the network of boxes existed. 'Standard issue' meaning members did not have to pay extra for the key.
The AA had a similar network of boxes and by agreement they had the same locks.

Both box networks have disappeared, but I do not recall when this happened.

Regards.

[Wittsend]

These days everyone's got (& had) a mobile phone and the phones on the motorways are free access.

The technology has moved on ...

In the unlikely event of an accident, where the airbag is deployed or the fuel-pump deactivated, the technology can use a Bluetooth®-paired and connected mobile phone to automatically make a direct call to the Emergency Services for you. You can choose to stop the call, or talk to those services if you need to. Crucially, the system will supply vital information, such as your GPS coordinates, even if you are unconscious.

I still have my RAC box key (never used) ...




 

[Larry S.]

I have a metal one, marked V 438578 on the back, I bought at a car boot about 7 years ago near Torquay or only a £1!!!!
I think original but I have seen reproductions

I have one of the Queens' crown versions from Australia.  An acquaintance who lives there sent it to me.  It has a maker's mark on the back, but no number.  The guy who sent it to me said it came off of an old Chrysler wagon that he had sold to a guy.

[Larry S.]

These days everyone's got (& had) a mobile phone and the phones on the motorways are free access.

The technology has moved on ...

I still have my RAC box key (never used) ...




 

That is really cool! 

I don't suppose you recall whether or not your badge has the 2355 on the back does it?  I have ran across two more dealer sites that claim the keys were issued with those badges.  I dug out a 1961 dated RAC brochure that still has its application form inside.  There is nothing indicating that the key was an option you paid more to have; it says that all members are issued keys. 

So, why have 3 dealers said that the 2355 badges came with keys?  Per the literature this doesn't seem to be the case and most of the badges I've seen for sale, or in collections, do not have the number.  This makes me even more curious as to why the '2355' is there. 

Hopefully someone from the RAC will be able to tell me.

[Larry S.]

Here's the brochure with it.

[Bbrian66]

The Royal Automobile Club and the RAC have been separate entities since the late '90s when the Club effectively sold Motoring Services, which is now the commercial roadside assistance business already referred to. Until that sale, anyone with RAC roadside assistance was deemed an Associate Member, which is not the same as a full member of the Royal Automobile Club.

As Twomokes says, the badge in question here is an Associate Membership badge and could be from any point between 1954 and 1973. All badges were deemed to be the property of the Club and were merely on loan to the individual.

Bbrian66

[Larry S.]

The Royal Automobile Club and the RAC have been separate entities since the late '90s when the Club effectively sold Motoring Services, which is now the commercial roadside assistance business already referred to. Until that sale, anyone with RAC roadside assistance was deemed an Associate Member, which is not the same as a full member of the Royal Automobile Club.

As Twomokes says, the badge in question here is an Associate Membership badge and could be from any point between 1954 and 1973. All badges were deemed to be the property of the Club and were merely on loan to the individual.

Bbrian66

Do you have any idea what the 2355 indicates?

What's the difference between a "Full Member" and an "Associate Member?

[Alan Drover]

From what I can recall when I was an RAC member, a full member was entitled to use the facilities of the club in Pall Mall, am associate member was the one using the breakdown/recovery services.