Errors in the Kecoughtan S8 flap

My friend Tim Ewing sent me a picture of a Kecoughtan S8 flap recently auctioned on eBay that I noticed, but paid little attention to it because it was an error issue. The embroidery was not complete, with noticeable details missing, primarily the red in the confederate flags and the arrow in the center front of the tree. While some patch collectors seek out these rarities, they are of little interest to me.


The S8 flap was issued to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the Lodge in 1986, and featured the first departure from the "classic" design of the original flap design with a large acorn in the center flanked by two confederate flags. The large acorn was replaced with an oak tree whose green canopy fills the upper part of the flap, with the lodge name embroidered in gray within it. According to documents provided to me by the late Dr. Ron Godby in 1996 the Lodge ordered a quantity of 400 of the S8 flaps.

Tim's notes with the picture, however, caught my eye, because they provided background for the patch that I wasn't aware of:

"For the record, the loom of S8 had many misprints in it. I do remember these being sold, but some were sent back too. Misprints that had missing flags, acorns, lettering, arrow."

I went back and examined the picture of the S8 issue on my own Kecoughtan Lodge Emblems and History web site, scanned from a patch in my own collection. I had often thought the patch looked unique since the flags were missing stars, but never considered that it was an error, since all of the other design components are complete. After reading Tim's email I pointed my browser to John Pannell's essential site for any OA collector, OAimages.com. Checking the Kecoughtan S8 issue there my suspicions were confirmed: the patch in my own collection and pictured on the Kecoughtan site is an error patch.


Looks like I need a "complete" S8 to add to my collection! It should look like this (image courtesy OAimages.com):