got this in a mixed lot off ebay, appears to be an indian head cent that has been restruck into some sort of challenge coin or medallion. the text inside the shield has some greek and some latin lettes making it really hard to decipher the message. some have said that it may be related to a fraternity, others suggest the 7 stars represent the 7 original confederate states. overall i can't get any google hits after typing in dozens and dozens of descriptions etc. any thoughts? (thank you in advance) Wade
That's interesting Wade. I've been collecting counterstamps for years and haven't seen anything like that before. I have seen the raised style but not that particular symbol or whatever it represents. You got me curious so I'll check into it and see if I can find out anything for you. Bruce
Impressed on the reverse is "DYER IND'PLS". There is a town in Indiana named Dyer. Not too near Indianapolis, though. There are currently a number of jewelers named Dyer in Indianapolis.
rickmp thanks, someone from another forum suggested the jeweler connection, i've emailed pictures to C. B. Dyer & Ratliff Co (they've been around since 1890 and do work for fraternities) will post results
here is the reply i got back from DYER and RATLIFF so, looks like a frat badge of some sort, but.... WHICH frat?
The only letters I can make out are Phi, possibly Xi and Epsilon. (in the middle of all of the letters)
The O with the line through it is phi, and the E is sigma. The character between them looks like a small t, which is tau. Together, you have Phi Tau Sigma, and I found this with a google search: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phi_Tau_Sigma
That one hasn't been around long enough, really. OP, that's an interesting piece. I'm interested to see the origin, if it's discovered.
the 'center' letter could also be zeta or xi, but we can't assume its all greek, the starting letter G doesnt exist in greek! G is common in masonic symbols as God and/or Geometry, and fits with the skull/bones. but ???
I'm only going by the 3 Greek letters I can see and identify. Whether it's related to the link I posted or not, is another story. It's what came up in the google search
I'm not sure why but I keep coming back to a connection to the KKK with this piece. It seems like Ive seen a similar design somewhere. Also Muncie IN. was one of the hotbeds for the KKK's activity which isn't too far from Indianapolis . Another path to look into in the therory list.
MYSTERY SOLVED: the 'coin' is from a high school fraternity formed in Muncie Indiana in 1899. beta phi sigma. source: American Secondary School Fraternities published in 1912 by J. Ward Brown. it went on to be a national fraternity with 74 chapters. off shoots can be found around the globe. some history of the fraternity can be found here: http://betans1979r7.blogspot.ca/ the text in the crest does not exactly match any of the chapters at the time the book was published, so it is likely it was either produced very early on in the evolution of the fraternity, or was for a chapter added after the book was published, or is code/motto/membership rank etc. i would tend to lean towards for a chapter added after 1912. the PENNY used was in production from the US mint from 1860-1909, it is entirely possible that it was stamped into badge form any time after 1899 up until present day, but most likely in the first quarter of the 20th century thanks for everyone's input
