Here's a couple of my favorite Indian Head tokens, maybe we can make a thread of Indian Head tokens. Truly what I'd like to know about is did you have relatives in a The Improved Order of Red Men, Odd Fellows, Masons, Eagles, Shriners or any of the other fraternal organizations, or were/are you a member? I never knew much about these organizations except that when I was working for the State, we held our Pest Control testing in an Odd Fellows hall, must still be there but idk. Oh, and that all these organizations did work to make things better for all, they all operated out of goodness and kindness and did great work for our communities. Are these fraternities still around, I know the Lions Clubs are still going strong in California, and the Shriners as well, anyone know anything? Anyone here collect fraternal organization tokens, medals, badges, please post a pic, I'd like to see what others have come across!
Now that intrigues the heck out of me. Not because I have a fascination with the symbol, but a fascination with history. I always knew it translated back to the ancient Buddhists. Was it also in use with native Americans?
The swastika symbol was historically used by many Native American tribes, particularly Hopi and Navajo, and was popularized in the tourist trade circa 1890 until 1940, when tribes signed a declaration banning the symbol due to its new association. It was also incorporated into many buildings in the southwest, for example the Kimo Theater in Albuquerque. It's interesting to read up about it. Oddly people say it originated in India 6000 years ago, but I don't see how it would have spread from there to North America in prehistory. @fretboard my grandfather and uncle were both members of the Lions Club and I'm pretty sure they were also Freemasons, but neither ever spoke about it. I inherited a couple baubles like this 100% attendance pin. I had never heard of the Improved Order of Red Men but apparently it's a reference to the Boston Tea Party. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improved_Order_of_Red_Men
Two very nice IORM tokens you posted. An affordable one has never come my way. Both seem to be Whitehead & Hoag pieces which is a plus in my opinion. Had an uncle that was a member of the local Masons. Most of my local ancestors were members of The Grange / Patrons of Husbandry. I have a small collection of Masons tokens and this I.O.O.F token.
Yes. I believe so, with some tribes. The swastika (long before the Nazis permanently ruined it for everybody else), was long a good luck symbol in many cultures. Quite a few early 20th century tokens featured them.
I know a guy who found a "good luck" token while detecting. We thought it was a WW2 token until we researched it.
Tangential regarding the widespread use of the symbol, this is a giant statue of Guanyin in Chiang Rai, Thailand. You can go up inside and find a statue with the symbol. I don't know what it means in the Buddhist tradition.
There were lots of fraternal groups during the first half of the 20th century. The "Red Men" was not a Masonic organization it was more like the Elks, Moose, or Odd Fellows. As for the emblem on the token... Don't worry about it!
Great looking tokens up there, oh and that famous Guanyin as well, my wife is Japanese so I'm familiar on Guanyin and Buddhism. I have a super nice .925 Odd Fellows medal but it's missing in action right now, it will turn up somewhere but I do have this hanging medal, just WM of some kind but that's okay, I still like it!
I found the .925 Independent Order of Odd Fellows medal that was missing, turns out it's basically the same as the hanging medal above, except it's sterling silver and there's a different date!
I found another Odd Fellows I had bought, not sure where it's at right now but here's the seller's pics. I had to move at the end of 2023 but I still have stuff in boxes, moving is the worst, especially when you get older like me!
