Austin Mini Cooper – original 1960s vitreous enamel CUD badge remounted onto a new leather keyfob

An original Austin Mini Cooper keyfob badge which will have been produced in the 1960s .

We have just this one keyring with this badge to offer – when this keyring has been sold this listing will be cancelled .

The keyfob badge which we have remounted onto this keyfob is a genuine original CUD keyfob badge which will have been produced during the late 1960s – it is marked ‘CUD – MADE IN ENGLAND  ‘ on the reverse of the badge and is one of only 4 genuine CUD Austin Mini Cooper keyrings and badges which we have ever listed over the years .

Please note that this badge design has been reproduced by others recently – the reproductions look just the same but are in modern resin enamel ( not vitreous enamel like this one ) and have a textured pattern on the reverse of the badge – they are not marked CUD .

This nickel plated keyfob badge has yellow & black vitreous enamel detail and is in excellent condition for it’s age .

There is the slightest hint of micro- chipping in the enamel in a couple of places around the edge of the badge ( which is almost inevitable in the case of a keyfob badge of this age which has been used and interestingly there is a small overspill of yellow enamel into the black enamel – all of this can be seen in the enlarged high resolution listing photos but when this badge in this relatively small size ( 23mm diameter ) is viewed in the hand at life size it presents very well indeed .

The badge was made by the famous CUD Co. ( Castle’s Unit Development Co. of Leicester )

The quality of CUD’s products is legendary and they produced torpedo shaped keyrings with this actual badge up until the late 1960s – we did list and sell just one Austin Mini Cooper CUD torpedo keyring with the same badge as the keyring in this listing in October 2022 – the only torpedo example which we have ever listed before or since .

The torpedo shaped keyrings had the splitring mounted through an eyelet in the top of the leather keyfob at 90 degrees to the keyfob itself which resulted in the keyring not hanging well from the key once the key was inserted into the ignition .

Additionally the torpedo shape had become rather passe by then ( although highly collectible now ! ) – so CUD briefly updated the torpedo shape to a peardrop shape with the eyelet/ splitring arrangement just the same ( which was no improvement ) and then finally succumbed to producing a conventional keyring like everyone else with the same badge which you see here in this listing .

Sadly CUD then disappeared ( maybe they morphed into another concern known as ‘Craftsman ‘ ) so the keyfob badge which  you see here was only produced for a short space of time – hence these keyrings and badges are scarce .

This keyfob badge will be original & correct use with any 1961 – 1969 997/998 Austin Mini Cooper , 1963 – 1964 1071S , 1964 -1967 1275S Mk I & II , and also 1964- 1965 970S .

The keyring in the photos is the actual keyring which you will receive with the badge now safely remounted onto a new keyfob in fresh leather and ready for the road again dangling from the ignition of an Austin Mini Cooper .