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When they stepped out of the recovery helicopter onto the deck of the U.S.S. Okinawa the Apollo 15 crew were wearing blue jumpsuits with an embroidered mission patch attached.

The same patches are visible on their jumpsuits in photos taken during the welcoming ceremony and at a meal on the ship.

The closeup images on the right show the details of the patch taken from a number of different photos.
The patch worn by the crew ... but NOT the Crew Patch

The photographic evidence shows that the patch worn by the Apollo 15 crew on their post-flight jump suits is almost certainly the regular AB Emblem mission patch.

Since this patch is not rare it doesn't really qualify as a "crew patch" for the collector.

Luckily, however, there exists another version of the Apollo 15 patch that does meet the criteria, as noted below.
The Crew Patch

The official crew patch for Apollo 15 is considered by collectors to be the one made by AB Emblem in which the "XV" is embroidered in silver thread instead of black. This version was only supplied to NASA for use in official presentations [1] and to the crew.

An even smaller number of patches were produced with gold thread instead of silver. It seems likely that these were only given to the crew. Both silver or gold thread patches are extremely rare.

Whilst preparing these pages I noticed a black symbol that appears between the blue arrow and the "W" of Worden on the silver thread version and inverted to the lower right of the "XV" on the gold thread version. Thanks to the efforts of CollectSpace message board members this hallmark has now been identified as the stylized first initial of Italian designer Emilio Pucci who created the Apollo XV emblem.

[ Patch image courtesy of Don Willis ]
Since noticing the hallmark, I've seen that a lot in the Aurora Galleries Spring 2006 auction actually refers to this design feature explicitly. The handwritten note from Dave Scott to Stan (presumably the person creating the crew patch) reads ' The "E" to be included in the surface of the design is formed thus :' followed by a drawing of the stylized "E" of Emilio Pucci. The lot also came with a copy of a letter from Pucci to Scott, the details of which are sadly not included in the listing.
[1] Silver thread Apollo XV patches were mounted alongside mission flown flags on presentations produced for approximately 136 nations (e.g. this example from Sweden). I also believe that for each country a second presentation was prepared 'just in case', implying that as many as 272 of these silver thread patches were used in this context alone.
Apollo 15 Mission Patch Gallery
Crew Patches AB Emblem Lion Brothers Other Manufacturers

Since the crew wore regular AB Emblem patches on their post-flight jumpsuits, the crew patches are considered to be the one shown above and the one on the right.

This patch, produced in limited numbers for the crew by AB Emblem, has the "XV" executed in silver thread. [4" / 101mm]

This version, produced in extremely limited numbers for the crew and NASA by AB Emblem, has the "XV" executed in gold thread. [4" / 101mm]

The AB Emblem patch is the one worn by the crew on their post-flight jumpsuits. [4" / 101mm]

The Lion Brothers patch has a distinctive radial pattern to the thread of the white outer area. This distinguishes it from both the regular AB Emblem version and the special silver "XV" crew version.

The patch also has a hallmark in the form of the number 15 in silver thread above the "D" of "WORDEN". [4" / 101mm]

This appears to be a scarce variant version of the AB Emblem patch, the only difference being a silver border instead of the usual blue. [4" / 101mm]
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