Circa 1880 Membership Badge for Washington Legion No. 3 of the Knights of the Revolution. Plated Copper. Musante GW-Unlisted; Baker Y-105. Very Fine.

49.0 mm. 416.8 grains. Bright chromium appearance, as the few others seen. An XRF test on the surface of another example reveals this surfacing to be primarily a copper-nickel alloy. Two suspension chains but missing the pinbar that tends to be engraved with the member's name. A couple of corrosion spots, one of which near the sword reveals the copper core of this piece. A long misunderstood piece, cataloged by Rulau and Fuld as "silver" and dated to the 1800-1830 time period, based on a casual translation of the design features, without consideration of the style, which is rudimentary at best, and clearly more modern than suggested. We too have miscataloged this type in the past, relying upon the published works. In fact, this dates to around 1880, and was a membership badge of a fraternal order in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. "K of R," which has been speculated to stand for Knights of the Revolution, was assessed correctly by past writers. The organization of that name had been formed by 40 members (perhaps matching the number of such badges originally produced), but had been disbanded as of the 1924 publication date of Lancaster County Pennsylvania, A History, edited by H.M.J. Klein, Ph.D.

From the Sydney F. Martin Collection. Earlier from Presidential Coin and Antique's sale of the Ganter Collections, Part II, November 1994, lot 200; David Hirsch Collection; Presidential Coin and Antique's sale of June 2011, lot 169.