I’m thinking it could possibly be a Coat of Arms or if not, the symbols are often used in them, ie. lyon, fleur de lys, crown. You can Google search the various family surnames coat-of-arms images and see if anything matches this. I’m also inclined to think the images such as the fleur-de-lys and lyon are related to the French. Maybe it dates back to the French Revolution and you have some valuable antique! If you can’t identify it online, I think if I were you I’d take it to an antique dealer or a very good jeweler for an appraisal if such is available where you live. This medallion is probably gold and would be worth a lot considering how that metal has risen in price.

It also reminds me of medals worn on uniforms by the military, particularly on costumes in historical pictures and movies, etc. At any rate, it is very lovely and the work is detailed so it must be very special and old if it belonged to your grandmother. She may have been given it by her grandmother or mother! Do you have any relatives that you could ask about it? If not, you could also try researching all the family names you know of through Ancestry.com or some other genealogical resource.

It does not look at all to me like a medal with any religious significance. It looks like it could have political significance though.

Is there anything on its back?

Is there anything on its back?

Nothing on the back.

Capricorn – Thanks for the info and ideas.

Yes that fleur-de-lis symbol is usually French, while that lion is usually an English symbol?

I doubt it is worth much, but I would be inclined to keep it regardless of its worth (unless it was some crazy amount, maybe).

They were both life long Democrats. Grandfather was a skilled tradesman and tool and die inspector for Ford, UAW member eventually elected to leadership position in the union. Possible clues?

Interesting flash thought! My grandmother’s brother was in the 82nd Airborne in WWII, and died in the Battle of the Bulge. He is buried in Belguim.

I will continue to research this as time allows over the next few weeks. If I ever find anything out, I will update this post. Thanks for the clues and ideas.

The crown suggests royalty.

I agree, it’s a Coat of Arm’s. You can probley do a search & find one like it, and it’s meaning. I have a few family surname coat of arms with the meaning.

I attempted to do more crowdsourcing on reddit:

https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthin … und_among/

I hoped to discover an easy to use coat of arms database, where you could specify the identity and locations of individual symbols. No luck. But there many online resources that have info about what the symbols mean, identification of different parts of the coat of arms, associations with specific surnames, etc.

Can some one do a google reverse image search .. Download the pic and Google will spew up a whole lot of similar and not so similar pics.. Pretty easy.. Im only on iPad and it does not work..

Edit worked out how to do that with iPad and see that you posted it up on reddit As well.but that’s all. So it sort of worked

It’s from Belguim!

The coat of arms and royal ideas pointed me in the direction of my grandmother’s brother, my great uncle Phil, who fought and died in the Battle of the Bulge and is buried in Belgium.

I looked up the Belgian symbol and coat of arms. They have many features on this medallion. The matches include:
the 5 point crown
the standing lion with front paws up
the knight in a helmet
Red and white colors

Half of Belgium speaks French which would explain the fleur-de-lis. Thanks to all who helped your ideas on coat of arms and royalty pointed me in the right direction.

Now I still don’t know exactly what it is, but clearly it is related to my great uncle’s service in WWII and his fighting, death and burial in Belgium. I doubt it was an individual medal given to him by the Belgian government? Maybe more likely a small token of esteem given to each of the relatives of 19,000 American soldiers who died freeing Belgium from Nazi Germany? Either way this will be a nice memory for our family. Thanks again. Maybe with these additional clues someone or Reddit can nail down if it is a medal or a token of death in service, or something else. But I feel happy in knowing it does pertain to my great uncle’s military service, in some way.

Belgium Coat of Arms*****************************************************************Mystery Medallion

*******************************************************************************************************************************
************************************************************************************************************************************Belgium Symbol

I found a little more on the "Coat of Arms". I looked specifically for the center shield in the piece and found an exact match. The match I found had a motto in Latin beneath it, "Pro Patria Et Unitas".

Your piece-

The piece I found here, https://www.etsy.com/listing/122041109/ … enamel-pro –

The Latin phrase means, "For Country and Unity" and is the motto for the 101st Signal Battalion (United States) which has a long, long history!

http://bit.ly/1WKKK6o

My family coat of arms is very similar and it is French. Ours includes the fleur de lys and a lion/griffin? And rose bc my last name means Roses in French. The color on the shield corresponds to social level/rank. ours is blue.

Very interesting find Seagull. Interesting to think of the origin of coats of arms in general.

Nice work, Seagull!

I edited the link because the forum gets confused with URLs that end with a parenthesis.

Very interesting. Thanks again to Capricorn, Dag MacLugh , zam, seagull, pink phantom, doranchak and everyone who contributed ideas or helped. I am glad I know the significance of this and members of my family will be glad to know. Thanks. Well we may not be able to solve the Zodiac mystery (yet) but we solved this little mystery. Thanks.

Just to put a face to the medallion, this is my great Uncle Phil, killed in action at the Battle of the Bulge, Belgium. Several members of my family were glad to have the medallion identified and now know it was connected in some way to his service. Thanks again to all who helped. Volunteered, died at the age of 18.