Help me identify this pin and/or the language it's in - please!

Good evening!

A friend of mine recently sent this image, asking for help identifying the language and/or the origin of the pin.
He suspects it's from World War 2, but doesn't have a whole lot of additional information.
I'm normally not too bad at getting to the bottom of such things, but I have to admit that I'm at a complete loss here -
can anyone identify the language on this? I recognise a number of the characters, but not enough to make sense of it... and as for the origin... I've no idea, and I can't find anything like it online.

Help!

IMAGE HERE: i.postimg.cc...

No idea, maybe you could contact this person:


www.birdpinbadges.co.uk...

a reply to: and14263

I don't think those are the same types of bird.

a reply to: Awen24

It has 1962 on the pin. Vietnam War?

a reply to: Awen24

Why does your friend think WW2 when it says under the wing, what looks like '1962'?

Additionally, and I'm no expert, but the writing could be Hindu

originally posted by: hombero
a reply to: and14263

I don't think those are the same types of bird.

Correct, they are different badges and different birds, however the site owner seems like a bird badge expert.

originally posted by: Deetermined
a reply to: Awen24

It has 1962 on the pin. Vietnam War?

This was my first question too - I've posed it, but no reply yet.
I'm unsure as to why he thinks it's WW2 - even the shape and pose of the bird seems to suggest otherwise, let alone the 1962 in the corner.

a reply to: Awen24


Some form of Hindi.

originally posted by: Awen24
I recognise a number of the characters, but not enough to make sense of it

What do you think the closest match is for the writing? I looked at a bunch of Asian alphabets and haven't found an exact match, but it definitely resembles some of them. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before though.

Something with the Peace Corps?

originally posted by: trollz

originally posted by: Awen24
I recognise a number of the characters, but not enough to make sense of it

What do you think the closest match is for the writing? I looked at a bunch of Asian alphabets and haven't found an exact match, but it definitely resembles some of them. I feel like I've seen it somewhere before though.

Well, if you take the letters individually, there are some that are pretty recognisable. The Greek Phi, for example (second last row, far right - looks like ɸ ), which is common to most cyrillic languages, and anything else derived from Greek... and at first glance, a cyrillic derivative would have been my assumption. But some letters (like those in the bottom left corner) aren't at all consistent with that. They're too elaborate.

There's punctuation evident here too - take the "U" shape in the top right - it has a period in the bottom right corner next to it. The same period shape appears elsewhere too - but whether that's punctuation itself, or a stroke that modifies the sound of the letter, I don't know.

I'd think the characters were probably European in origin - perhaps somewhere in the Baltics? ...but I don't know.

It looks likea mixture of languages although it would not make sense to be. I initially thought old english but there is a hint of runic about it too.

It's definitely Armenian... Now to figure out what the pin is.

Unicode is an international standard in managing language character sets. I had a quick look and been able to identify one of the symbols as Armenian. All the other symbols should be there somewhere. The pin does look like jumble of language characters with maths and various ethnic symbols. What does it mean? hmmm...

originally posted by: trollz
It's definitely Armenian... Now to figure out what the pin is.

The back of this Armenian coin looks like the same as the pin you are trying to identify:

numismaclub.com...

They have it labeled as a Armenian catholic medal

Shorthand Sanskrit

a reply to: Onlyyouknow

I think you are on to something.

similarities in this ebay item

originally posted by: Onlyyouknow
The back of this Armenian coin looks like the same as the pin you are trying to identify:

numismaclub.com...

They have it labeled as a Armenian catholic medal

Looks like it's the exact same text as on the top part of the pin. Good find! This is fun!

a reply to: trollz
Your Armenia clue was the ticket for me.

Now look at the front of the coin, I firmly believe it is:

Mesrop Mashtots, known for inventing Armenian alphabet:

en.m.wikipedia.org...

Here is the church where there is the same inscription on a stone at the entrance of his grave:

wikivisually.com...


Thanks for posting image- I am seriously challenged in that area.