Identify these symbols

[JayC]

20 years ago I was given this necklace as a present. I have been trying off and on to figure it out. Does anyone have any ideas as to the origin, secret society, etc?

[IMG]
P1030682 by Jay Chadney, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]
P1030683 by Jay Chadney, on Flickr[/IMG]

[kode]

Well, I web searched "TSRTDCTAV", and found this:
http://archive.org/stream/cu31924030...95103_djvu.txt
which mentions a "medal with various triangles, single and interlaced, a cypher of angular characters and having- also the letters vtsrtdcta" as being a signet of a "Select Templar one of the degrees in a Temperance secret society, and was struck in New York".

From the description, it sounds a lot like that yours look like. Searching for VTSRTDCTA gives a few more hits. A numismatist would probably be able to tell you more, regardless.

[JayC]

Thanks for the link. That Journal of Numismatics describes the medal perfectly!