RE: Standing Orders

"402. CAP BADGE

1. The cap badge has traditionally been described as "an eight-pointed diamond cut star; upon the star a raised circle surmounted by the Crown; within the raised circle, the BLOCK LETTERS 'VRI', the Imperial Cypher of Queen Victoria." The Crown mentioned above is that depicted on Queen Victoria's Royal Arms as approved on her accession. It is often referred to as the IMPERIAL CROWN to differentiate it from the Crown of the REIGNING MONARCH."

Dan,
I've taken the liberty to highlight in uppercase, "Block Letters, Imperial Crown, and Reigning Monarch" in the Cap Badge paragraph from your above post.

1. In stating "block letters", the Orders legitimize the current RCR style of cipher, but does it really? The Imperial Cipher of Queen Victoria is/was most commonly a SCRIPT style of cipher, not composed of block letters.

There are two or three variations of the VRI cipher that are indeed in a block letter style rather than the script VRI, but the one used on the RCR cap badge is NOT one of these. (I'll dig out images later) The RCR block letters do not follow any of the established rules of lettering or stylized script. The design is, to be polite, extremely amateur in execution. (This is where my theory of a napkin sketch come from. Rather than being a polished, finished design, it's more of a rough sketch with obvious reference to the script VRI as shown in the photo of the shoulder strap badge below. Look at the upper stroke of the "V" and the loop in the downstroke of the "R".)

2. What is really meant by "Imperial Crown"? Is this the crown that I've posted below under "Crowns"? Is this an indication that the Guelphic Crown was specifically eliminated/replaced? There are a few different versions of crown used as part of the Victorian cipher. Which is the real "Imperial" crown?

3. What is meant by "the Crown of the Reigning Monarch"? Is this a specific reference to the Edwardian crown as seen on the ciphers of ER VII and GR V ?

As it stands, without referenced illustrations, without graphic documentation, without drawings or sketches, these orders are extremely vague and open to wide interpretation.

Herein lies the root of controversy.