✅ SOLVED 10k gold pin

[tamrock]

I recently bought this little 10k gold pin that has FHC and LOBA engraved on it. Only thing that I find of LOBA is maybe a society known as the Ladies Orange Benevolent Association. It also has the initials FHC, which I'm pretty sure doesn't mean, The Fat Hat Club. On the back it's stamped with the makers mark and the initials LM, which is most likely the original owners initials. It isn't an overly mass produce piece, as it appears to have a great deal of a jewelers hands-on creation and engraving. It has the symbols of bundled wheat and an all seeing eye, set with a very small rose cut diamond. Just wondering if there are any other opinions as to what this little pin stands for and the age of it, which I believe is later 19th to early 20th century.

 

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[vpnavy]

...FHC...doesn't mean, The Fat Hat Club...

Maybe a Masonic (FHC) Faith Hope Charity related lapel pin?

 

[bulletproof002000]

Very cool.

 

[DCMatt]

I'm guessing "First Holy Communion" pin.

LUBA is a Slavic name.

I did a little more research as to why it only shows wheat on the pin and no grapes or chalice. My understanding is that, in some parishes, children do not receive wine at the first communion. They only get bread or "host". But I am not Catholic, so maybe others will chime on on this question.

 

[tamrock]

Oh yeah, Luba that makes sense Luba M. who ever she be? Zooming in that does appear to be a U instead of O. Holy Communion memento. That's a good possibility. Yes I did research a variety of fraternal symbolisms and found nothing of a bundle of wheat or what it might represent.

 

[tamrock]

Maybe a Masonic (FHC) Faith Hope Charity related lapel pin?

Indeed, many of these type of pins are related to the masonic order.

 

[Mortarght]

is it really gold lapel pin?

 

[Mortarght]

In fact this one looks like a real antique, seriously. Where did you find this?" I've never seen such vintage pins, but I really want to buy a couple, especially if they are gold/silver/bronze. My father collects old pins from everywhere (from various wars, alliances, companies etc.) so we need to ask him if he knows what the engravings mean. I just have no idea, because I collect the usual youth designed pins from https://www.pinmakers.com on my denim jacket. Those from films, games and so on and so forth.

 

[tamrock]

In fact this one looks like a real antique, seriously. Where did you find this?" I've never seen such vintage pins, but I really want to buy a couple, especially if they are gold/silver/bronze. My father collects old pins from everywhere (from various wars, alliances, companies etc.) so we need to ask him if he knows what the engravings mean. I just have no idea, because I collect the usual youth designed pins from https://www.pinmakers.com on my denim jacket. Those from films, games and so on and so forth.

I got this pin out of a thift store. I also collect little items made of gold as I travel for work and take time to hunt for things of value out of trift shops, pawn shops, coin dealers, flea markets and antique shops as I move along. The little gold pins and stick pins are just kinda neat I thought to collect.

 

[wilcam47]

LADIES ORANGE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION, LOBA? I dunno look like LOBA to me...would fit the Faith hope charity

 

[Red-Coat]

The pin virtually screams “Masonic” to me (and I think @wilcam47 has it exactly right… it’s “LOBA” not “LUBA” and is for the Ladies Orange Benevolent Association). The Masonic elements are

- God’s all-seeing “Eye of Providence”.
- An arch with a keystone that is almost certainly representing the Masonic “Royal Arch”.
- Masonic Rituals lay considerable stress on Faith, Hope and Charity as the three Principal Moral Virtues... hence the FHC.
- The wheatsheaf emblem, which is used within the “Loyal Orange Order” (LOL), also known just as the Orange Order and also as an emblem in the “Order of the Eastern Star” (OES). Below is an OES banner from the 1890s and, although it was described as a “sheaf of wheat” on Worthpoint, it’s probably more correctly barley. In OES, the biblical widow Ruth (representing the virtue of religious principles) is symbolised by the colour yellow and a sheaf of barley.



Here’s a more elaborate regalia pin for the LOBA. Note the sheaf of wheat near the top and the cross/anchor/heart below for faith/hope/charity.

 

[yaxthri]

Right on RedCoat!
LOBA it is

 

[Rookster]

Nice buy.

 

[Red-Coat]

Right on RedCoat!
LOBA it is

@wilcam47's credit, not mine.

 

[tamrock]

The pin virtually screams “Masonic” to me (and I think @wilcam47 has it exactly right… it’s “LOBA” not “LUBA” and is for the Ladies Orange Benevolent Association). The Masonic elements are

- God’s all-seeing “Eye of Providence”.
- An arch with a keystone that is almost certainly representing the Masonic “Royal Arch”.
- Masonic Rituals lay considerable stress on Faith, Hope and Charity as the three Principal Moral Virtues... hence the FHC.
- The wheatsheaf emblem, which is used within the “Loyal Orange Order” (LOL), also known just as the Orange Order and also as an emblem in the “Order of the Eastern Star” (OES). Below is an OES banner from the 1890s and, although it was described as a “sheaf of wheat” on Worthpoint, it’s probably more correctly barley. In OES, the biblical widow Ruth (representing the virtue of religious principles) is symbolised by the colour yellow and a sheaf of barley.

View attachment 1789079

Here’s a more elaborate regalia pin for the LOBA. Note the sheaf of wheat near the top and the cross/anchor/heart below for faith/hope/charity.

View attachment 1789077

Good data redcoat. With that I believe that sums it up and I'm thinking it's all there to mark it solved. Have you any idea as to the possible age this pin might be? My guess is 1890s to 1910s

 

[tamrock]

@wilcam47's credit, not mine.

Thanks @wildcam47

 

[Red-Coat]

Good data redcoat. With that I believe that sums it up and I'm thinking it's all there to mark it solved. Have you any idea as to the possible age this pin might be? My guess is 1890s to 1910s

Thanks. Yes, it couldn't be before 1894 but could be a bit later than the 1910s.

The Orange Order has its roots in Ireland in 1795 and spread across the pond via the establishment of the Grand Orange Lodge of British America in Toronto in 1830. It spread from there to other parts of Canada and also had a lodge in Philadelphia. Its political mission was to maintain protestant ascendancy and the status of Canada as a dominion within the British Empire. It also assisted the settlement of protestant immigrants to Canada, ran protestant orphanages and engaged in various community fund-raising activities.

LOBA was founded in 1894, as an auxiliary of the Orange Order in Canada to provide women with an opportunity to actively participate and was still going strong well into the 20th Century, but enjoyed its heyday in the early 1920s.