On any given day you can type "Masonic" in the eBay search engine, and get thousands of results. And generally, ten percent of those items have nothing at all to do with Freemasonry. This portion would seem to be coming from three classes of vendors: those who are completely unfamiliar with Masonry, but won't let that stop them from guessing; Spammers, that is, vendors who know their item isn't masonic, but just attach the keyword to make more people look at it; and con artists, who hope they can fool someone into buying a piece by lying about what it is.
Let's get a few facts in one place, then, so the uninformed can get a little guidance, and the unscrupulous can't feign ignorance.
1. Freemasonry, or Masonry, is a huge fraternity, with lodges in most of the free world. Members move through three degrees, becoming at the end Master Masons. This level of membership, called the Blue Lodge, uses for its logo the Square and Compasses united. Sometimes they are by themselves, sometimes with a letter G in the center, occasionally with a Sun or Moon in the center. Masonic symbolism revolves, as one might suspect, around the tools of the builders' craft. Officers in a Masonic Lodge wear badges called "jewels." The Master of a Lodge wears a square hung from a cord or collar. The Wardens wear a plumb or a level. Other officers, and the officers of other Masonic bodies, wear a wider variety of symbolic jewels, and discussions of them can be easily found online.
There are several appendant and affiliated organizations that Master Masons may join. The three largest are the Scottish Rite, the York Rite, and the Shrine.
The Scottish Rite confers 29 additional degrees so a Third-Degree Mason (that is, a Master Mason) who joins the Scottish Rite ends up being a 32nd degree Mason. There is also an honorary 33rd degree conferred on a few people in the country every couple of years. 32nd degree Scottish Rite Masons wear black pill-box-shaped hats. There is a "jewel" in the form of a white teutonic cross with a Roman "32" that goes with it. 33rds wear a white hat, and a jewel with a teutonic cross, a triple triangle and "33" attached to the ribbon. An honor given to some 32nd degree masons is the Knight Commander of the Court of Honor (KCCH). Its jewel is a red cross with a three-leaf clover on it, and the recipient wears a red hat.
The logo of the Scottish Rite is a double-headed Eagle, which often appears on rings and pins. There is also a 14th degree ring, usually a plain gold band with a triangle enclosing the Hebrew letter Yod, and with the motto "Virtus Junxit Mors Non Seperabit" inside the ring. There is also a 33rd degree ring, shaped like three rings joined together, sometimes with "33" on the front, and "Deus Meumque Jus" inside the ring. The 18th degree, "Knight Rose Croix" is often represented with a pin or ring showing a passion cross surmounted by a rose.
The Scottish Rite is run by a Supreme Council of 33rd degree masons. Every document the Scottish Rite puts out says something like "In the Name of the Supreme Council, 33rd Degree..." That does not mean that the document you have is a 33rd degree certificate. You'll have to bite the bullet and actually read the certificate to see what it really is.
The York Rite confers several degrees, including Mark Master, which uses a keystone as its logo, the Royal Arch Degree (RAM), Royal and Select Masters, and the Knights Templar (not "Knights of Templar", or "Knight of the Templar", etc...) Knights Templar use a distinctive sword. Their logo is a cross united with a crown, with the cross tilted at a slant. It is incorrect to apply the "Templar" keyword to masonic items that aren't directly involved with the Templar degree, more properly called "The Order of the Temple."
The Shriners, or more properly the Ancient Arabic Order, Nobles of the Mystic Shrine are the guys with red fezzes riding go-carts in parades. Their logo is a scimitar suspended from a crescent formed of tiger claws, with a sphinx head and a star.
Other Masonic organizations, that is, ones you have to be a Mason to join, include: Grotto, also called MOVPER (black fez); Red Cross of Constantine; Royal Order of Scotland; Philalethes Society; York Rite College; Knight of York Cross of Honor (KYCH); Tall Cedars of Lebanon; High Twelve International; Knights of Malta; Knights of Saint Andrew; Knight Masons; Allied Masonic Degrees; Royal Order of Jesters; Legion of Honor; Sciots; National Sojourners. That is an incomplete list, and some of those are subcategories of others. But if you can't make your collectible fit here, stop and consider that it might not be Masonic. There is a category titled just "Fraternal Groups" for this situation.
Youth groups connected to Masonic Lodges are the Order of Demolay, Job's Daughters, and Rainbow.
Ladies Organizations connected to Masonic bodies include: Eastern Star, Social Order of the Beauceant, Daughters of the Nile, White Shrine of Jerusalem, Ladies Oriental Shrine of North America, Order of Amaranth, and Daughters of Isis.
2. There are, or have been, a great many other fraternal orders and clubs out there that are completely unconnected to the Masons, but which keep turning up on eBay described as "Masonic". Among those I have seen erroneously listed in this way are the Odd Fellows (IOOF, their characteristic symbol is three links of a chain), Knights of Pythias (their watchwords abbreviate as FCB), Rebekahs (they use a star similar to the Eastern Star), Knights of the Maccabees, GAR, Elks (BPOE), Fraternal Order of Eagles, Moose, Kiwanis, Rotary, Knights of the Golden Eagle(KGE), Royal Arcanum, Woodmen of the World, Heptasophs, Order of United American Workmen, Order of Hibernians, Knights of Columbus, Alhambra, Order of Independent Americans, DOKK, Royal Antedeluvian Order of Buffaloes, United Commercial Travelers, Red Men, Patriarchs Militant, International Order of Foresters, Orange Order, Uniformed Rank...etc., etc. If your collectible is from one of these, eBay has other categories where it belongs.
3. Masons aren't the only ones who use symbols and regalia. The Jr. OUAM, for example, has used a square and compass, with an arm and hammer. Alhambra uses a fez. Lots of folks, including just plain religious people, use the "Eye of Deity". Knights of the Golden Eagle use a cross and crown but with the cross upright, unlike the Knights Templar. There have been a lot of sword-wielding uniform-wearing groups out there besides the Knights Templar. There are a lot of college fraternities and sororities that use fancy pins and regalia too. Even the apron, generally considered the badge of a Mason, has been "borrowed" by other groups, such as the Odd Fellows. Don't make assumptions, check it out to be sure.
4. The truth is out there. There are a lot of sites that have a lot of very helpful information on identifying fraternal collectibles. A lot of this stuff is still being made, and you can find online catalogues of fraternal supplies, jewelry and regalia. There are very useful books published on the subject of identifying fraternal regalia. It would be impossible to explain in one article how to spot items from every fraternal organization in history, so before you ask someone else to tell you what your piece is, try doing your own homework. If you have a pin that says FCB, try googling <fraternal FCB>. If you have a ring that shows three links of a chain, try googling <fraternal three links>. If you can't find a definite ID for your item in ten minutes on Google, then it's probably not a Masonic piece. If you can't spare that long to properly identify something, then maybe you shouldn't be cluttering up eBay with your stuff.
But please, please, take a second to look at the context of what you're reading. There's a very good site out there run by Masons, with an exhaustive section on the history of non-masonic fraternities and their regalia. There have been a lot of dim bulbs who decided that since these Masons were talking about it, then that made it masonic.
And it should be obvious by now that eBay is not a reliable resource for identifying Masonic collectibles.
5. Top Ten Excuses for Using "Masonic" in the Title of Non-Masonic Auctions:
"I saw a similar item, and it was labeled Masonic" (by similar, he means it was solid and had some letters on it)
"I'm not an expert...what is it then? " (what, are we your research department?)
"I read that a Mason founded this group" (...and Ben Franklin founded the Philadelphia Public Library, but that doesn't make it Masonic)
"It has some Masonic symbols on it" (Of course! Only a Mason would dare use a triangle!)
"I know that sometimes Masons like to read books about Astrology, like this one" (what can I say? That's the definition of keyword spam)
"My boyfriend told me it was Masonic" (watch out for what else he tries to tell you)
"It was my grandfather's, and he was a 33rd-degree Mason" (that still doesn't make it a "Masonic" toenail clipper)
"There are a lot of similarities between the Masons and the Odd Fellows" (for instance, they each have their own category on eBay.)
"We bought it from an estate with a lot of other Masonic stuff" (never mind that it says "National Rifle Association" on it)
"I put a question mark after the title, so don't blame me if I'm wrong." (Romanoff Crown Jewels? I'm not an expert, they might just be rhinestones...)
6. If you're trying to sell your grandfather's Masonic jewelry, and you don't know what any of it is, consider asking a local Mason to help you identify it. He would probably be charmed, and at least it might help you avoid embarrassment; at best you might have something valuable without knowing it. Before you post an item with a request that somebody else tell you what it is, stop and consider what kind of impression that leaves with your patrons.
7. There's an exception to every rule. Once in a while, you run into a piece that has the Square and Compasses on one side and an Elk on the other. People can join as many clubs as they like, and sometimes they have custom jewelry made.
8. Avoid launching into poetic discourses about what the meaning of this or that symbol is, particularly if you are not a Mason. Common sense tells you that most of the people who buy Masonic collectibles are Masons or dealers looking for stuff they can sell to Masons. These folks know that symbols speak for themselves.
Orignal From: Masonic Collectibles
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