I picked up some pieces for the Army 9th Infantry division at the F.U.N show. I had a lot of fun reading about their unit insignia which is called an octofoil. An octofoil is some kind of a 8 pointed leaf that a 15th century custom is based on. That custom being that each son is represented on a point of the leaf and the 9th son is in the middle, surrounded by 8 brothers. Not sure what they did about daughters or what they did if there were more or less than 9 sons but apparently the idea worked for 9th Infantry. Their Division news letter is even called The Octofoil. The troops in Vietnam gave their insignia the unofficial, (I'm sure very unofficial) nickname of the "psychedelic cookie." Here's what the shoulder patch looked like at the top of the page on the right: http://www.mrfa2.org/9thUnitCrests.htm
That's really interesting. What does the reverse look like? (Sorry to be such a pain, but this is a whole new numismatic subject for me and I want to see everything I can)
The reverse is the same. This is pretty common with military tokens from Vietnam. There's even a token that has (same other side) on it's reverse because that's what someone wrote on the drawing they sent to the die sinker. I find tokens, especially military tokens, to be pretty bland looking. It's the stories behind them that bring them to life. That's where the Internet and forty years of people writing books on the Vietnam war come in real handy. That bit about the "psychedelic cookie" I found in a $7.99 paper back book by Shelby Stanton.
I have a few of these from various units from when I was in Vietnam. They were used for NCO and Officer's Clubs slot machines. I don't have the 9th Inf Div, but I have Americal (aka 23d Inf Div - Chu Lai) and 101st Airborne Div (Phu Bai). While I suspect they don't have a lot of monetary value (I haven't checked), as longnine009 stated, they are worth a whole lot more in what they represent. BTW, ln009, I think that airborne song "Beautiful Streamer" is in the same league as "Blood On The Risers", both from WW2. The latter was sung in "Band of Brothers". I was first introduced to it during a tour at Ft. Bragg, NC (Home of the 82nd Airborne) during Grenada. For the record, I am NOT airborne - we had a saying about people jumping out of perfectly good airplanes and things that fall from the sky.
I got an Americal at the F.U.N show as well. That was a WWll unit that got it's name when it formed with troops from New Caledonia. Before the Vietnam Americal called itself that it was Task Force Oregon. This particular token however has some tainted history as the 11th brigade was part of it. And -Lt. William Calley's Charlie Company was in the 11th brigade . Beautiful Streamer is sung to Beautiful Dreamer. A lot of their songs, it seems, are sung to the Battle Hyme of the Republic. And end with "and he aint gonna jump no more." Yeah, I guess not. On the weekends I work with a retired Army Major who was in armor. I mentioned reading the lyrics on the web to Beautiful Streamer and he went off for 30 minutes singing all these crazy paratroopers song---"and he aint gonna jump no more."
That's the one except mine is Mint State (/brag). I got it in the Americal Officer's Club hot off the press and, being a coin collector even then, I stashed it rather than use it. I was in Americal (expansion of the origin of the only named Infantry Division in the US Army: it's short for American forces in New Caldonia) in 1970. When the division was formed, a bunch of Massachusetts National Guard units were used as the focus: 196th, 198th, and 11th Inf Brigades together with support units. I had 2nd Platoon, B Co, 523d Sig Bn; my platoon was originally the 27th Sig Platoon. All of Americal was living down, and is still living down My Lai. It probably will never be activated again, at least under the Americal name. I've got the MP3 from the 82nd if you want it. Or you can download it: http://www.newulmtel.net/~airborne/82nd Airborne All American Chorus - Blood Upon the Risers..mp3 Sorry to all about this off-topic diversion. However, my experience in Vietnam is still vividly with me after all these years.
It is pretty sad that entire division has to live down the actions of one officer. Who I'm also sorry to say was from S. Florida. BTW I have a token from 39th Signal Battalion dated 1963. I don't usually find many that have a date on it. Thanks for link!
