Religious Medal from around 1907

[brianc053]

Hi everyone. I was detecting today in an area that dates back to encampments from the Revolutionary War, so my hopes were high - especially after I dug these old square nails from the area (first picture).

And when my Equinox rang up a strong high 20's/low 30's signal I got pretty excited.
As I worked to uncover this item the green patina on the round object started to be revealed and I immediately thought "large cent", which would have been cool.
But it wasn't a large cent - it's some sort of medal/charm/necklace. That actually got me very excited for a moment because I thought, hey maybe this is off a uniform!

Alas, I was able to see "1907" on it pretty quickly so I started to try to figure out what this thing is.

What I can see on the front is:
- a lamb/sheep/cow/horse/dog holding a cross, with rays around its head.
- the dates 1607 on the left and 1907 on the right.
- the word "Christianity" toward the bottom.
- there are more words/letters, like "goo" or "God" but I can't make them out.

What I could see on the back was:
- "Presented to every boy..." (I think)
- there were other words (but not personalized inscriptions, I don't think).

I have to explain that after cleaning it with a toothbrush and soap/water, I wanted to try to reveal more. So I tried hydrogen peroxide at first. It helped a little, but not a lot. So I tried apple cider vinegar, and while that cleaned up the front it also destroyed the back.

Does anyone recognize this medal? I've done tons of Google searches but cannot find a picture of this medal anywhere.
But it's still cool!



From the ground:


After toothbrush:


After hydrogen peroxide:


After vinegar (I'm embarrassed to show the back):

 

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[Wildcat1750]

Don't know anything about it but interesting find.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Nice find! I see it got the typical Jersey soil "treatment." Next time if one side is worse than the other instead of an ACV bath try a little ketchup on just one side. With something that toasted I probably would have first hand rubbed it with a bit of oil on your finger from your face/nose (old fisherman's trick to keep the segments of a modular fishing pole from being impossible to pull apart). I'll keep watching the thread to see if you get an id.

 

[Red-Coat]

Don’t know what it is, but my guess would be it relates to the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony in 1607. The ‘world’s fair’ Jamestown Exposition of 1907 was hosted in Norfolk, Virginia and spawned all manner of medallic souvenirs and awards… some of them for small or obscure purposes or organisations.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Cant help with the ID, but it looks like a neat medal.

 

[brianc053]

Nice find! I see it got the typical Jersey soil "treatment." Next time if one side is worse than the other instead of an ACV bath try a little ketchup on just one side. With something that toasted I probably would have first hand rubbed it with a bit of oil on your finger from your face/nose (old fisherman's trick to keep the segments of a modular fishing pole from being impossible to pull apart). I'll keep watching the thread to see if you get an id.

Yes Erik, this NJ soil is rough on copper (I'm assuming this is copper based on the green patina...). I love the ketchup suggestion - I'd never heard that one but I will try it with coins in the future. (It seems like obverses survive better than reverses in this soil for some reason).
I'm aware of the forehead oil trick, and I've used it with some coins, but in this case the patina/corrosion on the back was so thick that it wouldn't have worked.
My other trick is to ask my 17 year old - who has much better eyes than me - to look at the item. He was able to see the "Presented to all boys" before I destroyed that with the vinegar, but he said the rest of the words on the back were unintelligible.

Don’t know what it is, but my guess would be it relates to the 300th anniversary of the founding of the Jamestown colony in 1607. The ‘world’s fair’ Jamestown Exposition of 1907 was hosted in Norfolk, Virginia and spawned all manner of medallic souvenirs and awards… some of them for small or obscure purposes or organisations.

Red Coat, thanks for the theory on the connection with Jamestown. I'll do some more research into that and whether this medal was related to that.
On the front of the coin, instead of "goo" or "God" it may say "300 years of Christianity" or something close to that.
Anyway, I may never know what this really was - but I'm glad I saved it from the NJ soil!

 

[Red-Coat]

For sure it's a religious medallion. That's the 'Agnus Dei' (Lamb of God) shown with the cross at the top. As an iconic symbol, it originated in the Catholic church but was widely adopted as a general Christian symbol... mainly by Lutherans and Anglicans. It may well say '300 years of Christianity', but the dates 1607-1907 as given on the medallion surely can't be a coincidence in relation to America's first permanent English settlement.

The Jamestown settlers were Anglicans (the official Church of England) and had been required to take an oath acknowledging supremacy of King over Pope before sailing. Upon arrival in 1607 they immediately constructed the first Anglican ‘church’, improvised from a sail stretched among the trees with sides of rails and benches made from unhewed tree trunks. Later the same year it was replaced by a barn-like structure for worship.

I would think the medallion is quite likely the kind of thing that might have been given to Sunday School attendees or whatever in commemoration of the colony's tercentenary in 1907 and... by extension, the tercentenary of Anglicism in America.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Hi Brian, the ketchup is an old trick used to clean off the crud that typically attaches to nickels. I just used it on a V and buffalo again the other day with great success. It'll work on copper too and the reason I recommended it in this case was because you had much more crud on one side of the medal and you wouldn't need to submerge the whole medal in ketchup. The mild acid works slower than straight vinegar which is more aggressive. Hope you get an id on the medal.

 

[thrifty76now]

Yep, that is an old one!!!

 

[Erik in NJ]

Brian, I forgot to mention that another mild topical abrasive that works well to slowly remove crud without being over aggressive is toothpaste and a toothbrush. I like Colgate with baking soda and peroxide. I found an 1864 IHC today was caked in crud to the point that it was almost unrecognizable as an IHC. A short bath in hot peroxide followed by a scrub with some Colgate and it looks almost new.