| Existing comment:
Two silver badges made by order of the Virginia General Assembly, c. 1662, each engraved "Ye King of" on one side, and the other side engraved with the name of a tribe, "Patomeck" [Potomac] on the one and "Machotick" [Machodoc] on the other. The badges served as passports for Indians visiting English settlements. The badges were fashioned of copper for warriors and of silver for chiefs. An act of 1661 read "If any damage or injury be done to any Englishman by them or any of them, that then the king or great man of the place the badge denote shall be answerable for it." Both medals were found on the same Caroline County farm, the Potomac badge in 1832 and the Machodoc badge in 1964. |