Knights Pythias - Past Chancellor - 1920ish Coin Silver

This is a Past Chancellor Jewel that was owned by J.D. VanVolkenburg

It is coin silver (.800) and seems to be late 1890s to 1920s in age.

Nicely engraved

All of these that I have seen have this copyright, the date on it is meaningless to date the actual jewel.

 

And it is in one of the best leather cases I have seen.  Dirigo is latin and is the first person singular present tense of dirigere.  It means "I direct" or I guide".  This might have been the name of the lodge, there is(was) at least one in California that adopted this as the lodge name.

This jewel is 3" by 2" and weighs 22 grams.  It is coin silver and possibly 10 gold(?).

relative amount I paid for this - low

As of 3/3/14 the silver scrap value works out to about $28

However, none of these are for sale.