"Two Bits for an Odd Fellow"

"Two Bits for an Odd Fellow"



Fraternal lodge token on 1857 Seated Liberty quarter







Larger obverse image

Larger reverse image



Host coin: 1857 Seated Liberty quarter. Obverse: original Seated Liberty design, unaltered. Reverse: planed off and re-engraved with a fasces supported by three sets of double columns, all-seeing eye above, Odd Fellows symbol (three conjoined links) below. Ex-"realap13" (eBay), 07/08/2016.



This is a neat fraternal organization token. While I'm mostly unfamiliar with the "temple" (column and fasces) elements, the triple links below are obviously the symbol of the international Odd Fellows organization and stand for "Amicitia Amor et Veritas" (or "Friendship, Love, and Truth"). I've also seen that all-seeing eye in some of their other iconography. Interestingly, the artist who engraved of the reverse did not choose to orient his engraving in relation to the obverse of the host coin, but chose a seemingly more random rotation- note the hole position.



I like this piece but am not a fan of the somewhat scuzzy obverse toning, so I may later attempt a localized cleaning on that side while leaving the reverse alone. Then I'll need to reimage this later. (Really, as of this typing, my entire "Oddball" collection is in need of proper imaging, as thus far I've usually just recycled the previous sellers' pictures.) But the slightly ugly toning might have actually worked to my advantage a bit, since I won this piece at a pleasantly inexpensive price for a pictorial love token, let alone one on a pre-Civil War quarter host coin with nice details.



Engraved/Counterstamped/Oddball Type Set