The Mysterious Case of the Military Coin

The other night, I went to my parents' house and noticed a large, metal coin sitting on the counter. When I inquired about the coin, Pa told me that he found it when he'd been out farming with my uncle. It was sitting on the road by so-and-so's house. So I asked, "Well, why didn't you take it to so-and-so." Pa's reply was rather amusing, "Well, so-and-so has been dead for about 20 years." Hmm. Guess it's not his coin. (OK, maybe he's been dead for like 10 years. I can't remember what Pa said, but it's been a looong time.)

I was immediately fascinated by this coin. I've seen them before. I've had friends in the various wings of the military show me coins they've received for a variety of reasons. But this one is unlike one I've ever seen before -- it's quite large. I'd say it's got a larger circumference than the top of this Diet Mountain Dew can sitting next to me. The military coins I recall seeing were much smaller -- like 50 cent pieces.

I know that Spice's boyfriend has been in the military at some point. So the other night when I saw him, I asked him about the coin. He said they do make them larger now. He said it's possible that we could find the owner, but it might be a generic coin. Hmmm.

I love a good mystery. I really do.

Pa had already googled the information listed off the coin, so he was able to point me in the right direction. I wrote down what it said and did my own little bit of hunting. It has a battalion and infantry number listed on it, the name of a group, a coat of arms, and "Award for Excellence." I would list all of these details here, but I don't want some poor man or woman to realize his/her information is being blasted all over the Internet by some random farmie. Also? The group I tracked all of this to is in a different state. It would be much easier if I had tracked this to a local group, but now it seems a bit more complicated.

All I really want to do is return this coin to its owner.

So I went to the web site of the battalion/infantry. I searched around trying to find any information that would offer up a clue. Nope. Nada. Then I emailed the information to Spice in case her boyfriend has any ideas. At first I thought about taking the coin to the local Veterans group to see if they could help. But now I think the best thing might be to email the web site and ask them how many people could be in that group and if they could ask around to see if anyone lost a coin? What do you think? How shall we solve this mystery?