What society is this?
October 19, 2013 5:20 PM   Subscribe

My wife found a pin in an antique store. It looks like it's to indicate membership in some sort of group. What is it from? http://i.imgur.com/iRIRLx0.jpg
posted by ckolderup to Society & Culture (10 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Those look like cattle brands.
posted by pullayup at 5:41 PM on October 19, 2013 [1 favorite]


They look a bit like runes to me.
posted by Tsuga at 5:48 PM on October 19, 2013


It looks like three Greek letters. Phi, Gamma, Pi? With the Phi written in a Latin character.

There is a sorority called Phi Gamma Pi.
posted by tel3path at 6:08 PM on October 19, 2013


Looks like a fraternal pledge pin.
posted by oceanjesse at 6:53 PM on October 19, 2013


probably not a pledge pin with the dangle on it. More likely it is a brother or sister pin.
posted by COD at 7:01 PM on October 19, 2013


It's hard to tell because the photo's so blurry. (My immediate instinct was Masonic symbols but I can't quite see clearly enough.) Also, is there something on the end of the little chain that might relate?
posted by dlugoczaj at 7:03 PM on October 19, 2013


If it's Greek letters, the top letter could be a digamma. By the classical period this letter was going out of use, so it likely wouldn't be a sorority letter.
posted by SpacemanStix at 7:16 PM on October 19, 2013


Although I do note that there are some societies and school groups that use the digamma in their name. Also, the second letter could be a gamma or an alpha.
posted by SpacemanStix at 7:20 PM on October 19, 2013


Not from any Masonic order I recognize.
posted by usonian at 7:31 PM on October 19, 2013


Can you get a clearer photo of the smaller bit on the end of the chain? In fraternity/fraternal member pins that usually represents the chapter designation, so it would at the least give us another character or two to work with in trying to figure out what language we're looking at.

As far as the lettering, I'm far from an expert in alphabets, but it seems reminiscent to me of Phoenician or Early Greek, but...bits and pieces of the letters don't seem to be where they're supposed to be based on the alphabets I'm finding (I don't read either language), and it seems odd that anyone would have had a Phoenician-letter fraternity. So I'm probably overthinking the whole thing and missing something more obvious.
posted by badgermushroomSNAKE at 11:51 AM on November 11, 2013


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