Can anyone tell me what these 2 pins on this old ribbon say?

[hearts-desires]

Can anyone tell me what these 2 pins on this old ribbon say? Thank you for your help.

[Anonymous]

Could we get a close-up of the back of the pins? Seeing the back might help with date or country of manufacture. How big are they? Size of dime, quarter etc.

[newnewnewmann]

[mountaingigi]

I know that ... should have added "what they are" after 'would".

[argon38]

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@new-oldman7 wrote:

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Actually, that's the mirror-image version

At least, I think it is...

[maxine*j · Accepted solution]

Yes, now that we've seen the entire thing, the correct orientation should be this one:

I even wondered about badly-done Cyrillic, but it doesn't seem to be that, either.

[newnewnewmann]

I can't tell, it keeps moving for some reason. 

I am very curious about this too. I have searched and gave up. There are a couple of similar characters in the Phoenician alphabet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet

[argon38]

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@maxine*j wrote:

I even wondered about badly-done Cyrillic, but it doesn't seem to be that, either.

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It is utterly perplexing. I agree it doesn't appear to be Cyrillic. But what script other than Cyrillic uses "И"?

[argon38]

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@new-oldman7 wrote:
There are a couple of similar characters in the Phoenician alphabet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet

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I also thought Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew at first, but that doesn't seem to be it. At the same time I'm not getting the impression that it's a fantasy language or a code. It's a real mystery.

[newnewnewmann]

 ИPunic N? 

[argon38]

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@newnewnewmann wrote:

 ИPunic N? 

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Could be... but then what's the "F" (last line)?

[maxine*j]

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@argon38 wrote:

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@newnewnewmann wrote:

 ИPunic N? 

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Could be... but then what's the "F" (last line)?

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And all that's why I said earlier:  "I still don't see anything familiar.  Or, rather, I sort of do, but it's a jumble that makes no overall sense."  I see characters that might be Punic, Cyrillic, Greek, Latin...  But even if they are some merry mix, when, you put 'em all together and they still don't spell "Mother."  Or anything else.

[argon38]

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@maxine*j wrote:
And all that's why I said earlier:  "I still don't see anything familiar.  Or, rather, I sort of do, but it's a jumble that makes no overall sense."  I see characters that might be Punic, Cyrillic, Greek, Latin...  But even if they are some merry mix, when, you put 'em all together and they still don't spell "Mother."  Or anything else.

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I wonder if they could be reproductions of some early coin or medal? The legends on ancient coins can often be blundered and well-nigh impenetrable. But then, why attach two of them to a ribbon like that? I've run out of guesses on this one.

[sonomabarn67]

Early repos of Olympic medals?

[sonomabarn67]

Plus two points for using the word nigh in a modern sentence.

[sonomabarn67]

Also, when I was a kid back in Ohio, one year for Christmas I got a new sweater and it had brass buttons with anchors stamped in them. I thought it meant that I was a captain or something to that order but it turned out that my buttons were not military grade and I was a nobody. Fast forward to today where I am constantly winning the real thing here on ebay with my coveted collection of badges...