Can anybody identify this symbol, please?

[Bilko]

Found today in a field in greater London> both sides shown in the pics.Note that one of the sides of the V is decorated and then reversed on the other side. Think it's my first gold thingy

[Blackadder43]

wow if i'm not mistaken thats masonic (masons) or knights templar...
Very nice...good to research and may need reporting depending if its recent or not....

[Blackadder43]

Take a look at this

[Blackadder43]

To much to copy and paste so take a look here
Very nice find.......

http://www.masonic-lodge-of-education.c ... asses.html

[Bilko]

Brillaint info as usual,thanks!! I will defo report it. I guess it is hand made? Most of the stuff out of the field is 18th/19th century

[stargazer]

Definitely freemasons. Doesn't look too old, maybe 19th/20th C.

[Bilko]

Defo gold. Reads 12:12 constantly on the E_Trac. Silver is a 47 on the CO scale. Have reported it to Colchester

I have a theory about digging fields and will put it on the tips page

Thanks for the comments and ideas

[Dave8472]

Wow, cool find

[Bilko]

Cheers.Just guessing but if one side is different to the other, then it may be used in a voting system? Nice markings.The outer of the thingy indicates growth maybe?

[groundsniff]

fantastic find

[furriner]

Excellent find. I would recommend that you contact the United Grand Lodge of England and Wales, whom may well have a historical section. I will also ask a few people from lodges I know about this - masonic regalia/commemorative pieces are often sought after. And, tended to have a limited number of companies producing the decorative pieces.

The website of the Grand Lodge is: www.ugle.org.uk/

Out of interest, how big is the item? And, are there any places to attach anything to it or visa versa?

[Bilko]

thanks, Have done that. It's about the size of a 2p piece.

If you go to here:

http://s194.photobucket.com/albums/z121 ... 53/thingy/

and click on the individual photo, it shows 54% of the photo and you click again to get the full size.Something may have attached to the top since it has 2 tiny black lines accross the top of it on the width side of things

[Bilko]

This is from one lodge:

Thank you for your email. It is difficult to determine the age of the
emblem you found. This emblem is quite common, even today. Depending
on the size of it would explain the usage. Some smaller emblems were
used as FOB's and larger ones were door plaques. If the item is truly
gold, you have something of great value. Most of the items were made
of brass or copper.

A 12:12 on an E-Trac is almost definitely gold

[Blackadder43]

Easy way to tell the difference between Brass and Gold

The simplest way employed by many jewelers is to rub the brass object between or with your fingers. Brass has a unique smell which will be transferred to your fingers and can be easily detected. Conversely, rubbing a gold object with your fingers produces no smell at all.

[Bilko]

From The PAS:

Many thanks for reporting the object to me, however due to the date of the object it falls outside the remit of the Portable Antiquities Scheme - we record objects up to circa AD1650, and in the case of potential treasure cases this is extended to objects over 300 years old. As the object falls outside of my specialism I approached the Freemasonry Museum for their assistance in identifying and more precisely dating the piece. Their curator has identified the object as a late Victorian fob ornament from a watch chain; the attachment loop probably failed resulting in the objects loss.

Very efficient they are!