There are likely more manufacturer variants of the Minesweeper Badge than of any other Kriegsmarine service badge.  Even ignoring variations in gilding and reverse finish, based just upon maker marks, hardware attachments and trimming characteristics, there are at least 98 variants for which more than one example exists. 

    In 2010, based upon the “fingerprint” of the wave pattern below the water plume, I  produced a classification system which groups all variants into six main categories.  This approach is useful for highlighting homologies of design between manufacturers that sometimes may indicate working relationships or shared supply lines among companies.

    A colleague and fellow Minesweeper aficionado came up with the idea of compiling these variations into a table with a decimal system for sub-variants.  The first version was in 2010 and over time has grown into the current summary table presented above.  Click on the thumbnail to view full size.

    To view the badges within each of the six categories click on “The Badges” in the navigation bar.