Swastika
A great many good luck tokens were made from the 1910's through the 1930's. Until World War II, the swastika was one of the significant symbols of good luck and was used on many tokens during this period. Of course, the German use of the swastika changed that and it is no longer used as a positive symbol.
Within the swastika, there are four symbols. The first three are easy; horseshoe, four leave clover and wish bone. It is the fourth set of three symbols that exist on most of these tokens that seems to be unclear. I've done a bit of research and I believe they are rune characters.
Runic Symbols
 "Runes are an alphabetic script used by the people of Northern Europe from the first century c.e. until well into the Middle Ages. In addition to their use as a written alphabet, the runes also served as a system of symbols used for magic and divination." (The Runic Journey by Jennifer Smith, 2003).
Hence, like the other symbols of luck these runic symbols are of superstition (view). The three runic symbols that I believe may be the symbols on the tokens stand for: protection, mother goddess, and home and family unity. If you have more information, please email me.
These three symbols are slightly different than todays standardization of them but I feel it is due to variation in character drawings in the same manner as we all write differently.
Token Classification
As an attempt to classify the tokens and make it easier for viewing, I have categorized the tokens into five groups. My groups are:
- Scout and Excelsior tokens - This includes all tokens made by the Excelsior Shoe Co. and those that refer to "Boys" or "Scouts"
- Worcester Salt
- Those not in the above categories that say on the reverse, "Membership Emblem of the Don't Worry Club."
- Those not in the first two categories that say on the reverse, "Membership in the Good Value Club."
- All Other
An interesting variation of the swastika is that some are right facing, some left facing. It seems that the variation is primarily attributed to symmetry of design when both are used. Within the swastika arms are also good luck symbols. For the right facing swastika, the common pattern is:
- A horseshoe in quadrant 1;
- A four leaf clover in quadrant 2;
- A wish bone in quadrant 3; and
- Three runic symbols in quadrant 4.
The following patterns have been identified: |
