Help identifying this (military?) medal?

October 9, 2015 11:39 AM

A friend is looking for some information on this medal. Any thoughts?

They have a great-grandfather who served in the Union army during the Civil War and a father who served in the Army in between the Korean and Vietnam wars but it doesn't look like an American medal.

posted by bowmaniac to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

Best answer: I'm inclined to say British, not American. And not a military medal or award, but rather something for a veterans' organization, probably an organization of veterans from a specific unit and meant to be worn on the lapel of their civilian suit.
posted by easily confused at 11:51 AM on October 9, 2015

Best answer: This is almost certainly not of either British or American military origin. In fact, it looks vaguely German: the Germans were in the habit of giving out less prestigious decorations in the form of a ribbon looped over a button worn in the centre of the jacket, and back and white were the colours of Prussia.

I don't think it's German, though. For a start, it's much too small. It looks like it was designed to loop through a lapel button.

The coat of arms has all the things you need to be a real coat of arms but it just... somehow doesn't look real to me. It's too simple, the elements are too generic: lion and lioness? -- those would rarely be selected as supporters on a real coat of arms, the crest is a strange shape that's difficult to make out, and the shield is oddly simple. I suspect it might be a coat of arms designed by somebody who was trying to make something that looks like a coat of arms, rather than somebody who was making a specific coat of arms for a real organisation.

To me, this looks like it might be a button from some fraternal organisation. It might also be a fragment of a piece of clothing that just happens, by coincidence, to recall the form of a military decoration.
posted by Dreadnought at 2:41 PM on October 9, 2015

Response by poster: They had found it in a box that had some other random Civil War uniform buttons which is why they thought that way to start but yeah, it's not really the US style. I wondered about German - when I googled "white gray black military ribbon" there were *a lot* of German ones that popped up.

It vaguely resembles this but not quite.

I think you may well be right that it's just a thing and not a thing thing.
posted by bowmaniac at 2:49 PM on October 9, 2015

If you want to check whether that button is associated with the others, look at the back. How was it attached to the original clothing? Is the fastener the same?
posted by Dreadnought at 3:40 PM on October 9, 2015

Best answer: Just a guess, but it looks to me like someone took a spare livery button that resembled the UK coat of arms (maybe a crude lion and unicorn) and made a little military decoration out of it, perhaps for a Civil War costume? It's hard to tell from the picture, but the fabric looks kinda like nylon webbing.
posted by thetortoise at 1:02 AM on October 10, 2015

Best answer: Reddit has some good forums- what is this thing, and several military ones that could help.
posted by Jacen at 7:01 AM on October 12, 2015

Response by poster: So quick update - after talking to some more family members someone wondered if one of the post-Civil War precursors to the VFW or American legion had a national convention in 1883 and it was related to that.

They did some digging and it turns out two women's organizations (the National Woman's Relief Corps, Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic and the Ladies of the Grand Army of the Republic) were founded as auxiliaries of the Grand Army of the Republic at the GAR's Denver Convention in 1883.

So that's where they're leaning now.

Thanks for the thoughts!
posted by bowmaniac at 6:39 AM on October 15, 2015 [1 favorite]