The Swastika Wasn't Always Bad

There was a time when the Swastika wasn't a bad thing. In fact, for centuries, the Swastika was considered a good luck symbol. The name itself comes from the ancient Sanskrit word "svastika" which could roughly be translated as good fortune, and for centuries was used as a symbol of good luck.

In my last blog, I briefly mentioned an interesting good luck token that Bill had found at one of our permissions. Pictured above, it was good for a dollar off a minimum ten dollar purchase from a clothing company that no longer exists in my home town. But the thing that I found striking was the big swastika on the one side.

Up until then, I had always thought the Swastika was a Nazi invention. This token showed me how wrong I was and I learned that, not only had the symbol been around for thousands of years, but it had been the practice here in the United Stated throughout the 1800s and early 1900s to include the symbol on good luck tokens.

That practice came to a halt during World War II when the Nazi's perverted the symbol and forever connected it to evil and war atrocities, but for centuries prior people associated the symbol with good fortune, just like the horseshoe and the four leaf clover, which are also featured on this token.

I know I've said it before, but one of the things that I love the most about metal detecting is that I'm always learning something. I learned a lot that day when Bill unearthed this good luck token. I learned about a business that once operated in my home town years before I was born. I learned about the origins of the swastika and it's previously favorable connotations. And most of all, I learned that I have another item on my bucket list. Maybe this year it will be my turn to find a token as cool as the one Bill dug. Or maybe it will be your turn!