Your badge also includes 13 Pearsons. Super unique.

Ladies, thank you so much for your responses! I want to add them to my original post but for some reason it won't let me edit the post. When I have some time, probably this weekend, I'm going to start a new post and edit it and hopefully we'll get more responses I can also add. Thanks for your patience! :)

Actually, this would be a great option for terminated and disaffiliated members who refuse to return their badges and instead try to sell them on ebay!

This badge will self-destruct in five seconds...

:D

Never GreekChatting from my phone again, lol.

Kappa’s badge is always a golden key, one inch in length, and can be plain or jeweled, with different combinations of diamonds, pearls, sapphires, and synthetic stones (the latter for my personal favorite, the blue and blue badge). The letters on the key’s stem and ward can be plain or enameled. It is common, and I think standard practice now, for your initials, chapter, and initiation date to be engraved on the back of your badge.

Also tangentially related: we have a special group of alumnae called the Keepers of the Key who rescue old badges that have popped up on ebay and other similar sites. They first attempt to reunite the badge with its owner, and if that is not possible, the badges are available for other members to ‘adopt.’ I love that we do this, to keep our badges with sisters, and am planning on ‘adopting’ a badge myself someday!

I had a mini-falloffmychair moment when I first saw the panhellenic emerald badges on the AOII jeweler's site. That's some serious shenanigans after years of staring at my modest chased O!

The Gamma Phi badge combines our symbol - crescent moon - with the Greek letters (Gamma, Phi, Beta); the letters are designed in a monogram style and are 'stacked' on top of the moon. History is that Frances E. Haven, a founder, had a friend (who later became her husband) who began the design process (with a monogram), then other people contributed before it was sent to Tiffany's for completion. I like the letters' raised quality and how the badge has a layered texture with the crescent "cradling" the three Greek letters on top.

Most of my chapter sisters chose the same style: Gamma and Beta in plain gold, Phi with pearls. I've seen badges from late 1800's/early 1900's and oh my...diamonds, opals, turquoise, rubies, and emeralds. One difference between some older badges and today's badge is that a few antique ones have a "skinny" Phi whereas today the "Phi" fully lays on top of the other letters. Check out some serious badge eye candy here - I especially like the turquoise.

http://gammaphibetahistory.org/1874-...-of-the-badge/

Here's an unusual badge from a charter member of our Michigan chapter in 1881 - opals with a white crescent moon and chased letters as well.

https://www.google.com/search?q=gamm...PUR_tAb9B_cDM:

I'm thinking of getting the badge ring so I can wear mine more often. I love the older badges so much, it would be neat to keep them in the Gamma Phi family by buying some from eBay and maybe make a piece of jewelry like a bracelet or necklace.

Alpha Gamma Delta has 5 badge options. They are all the same basic design - our greek letters imposed on one another. I believe all of the options are available in gold, silver or white gold. They are: Plain, Plain w/ tiffany pearl, crown pearl, crown pearl with tiffany diamond, or crown pearl with diamond points. Those are all the options on the Herff Jones page. Our International Council has a special diamond badge that is presented to them at Installation.

NYCMS - Curious about your description of your badge. I thought the letters on the crescent were Hebrew. Not because I know about the Hebrew alphabet, but originally the Pi Omega Phi sorority had their name in Hebrew letters. That group was organized by daughters of Eastern Star members and there was a definite masonic link. Anyway, the letters on the Gamma Phi Beta crescent do not look like Greek lower case letters to me.

I'm Jewish and fairly observant, but not a Gamma Phi Beta sister (I'm male). The hebrew letters on the badge appear to be אַרְבַּע (from right to left, the way that Hebrew is written) Aleph, Resh, Bet (or Vet) Ayin. And this matches with the Trademark Registration at http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfi...803:i4vqzn.4.1 is which says "The non-Latin characters in the mark transliterate to "ARBA" and this means "FOUR" in English."

See https://biblehub.com/hebrew/702.htm for uses of this word.
For the original name of Pi Omega Pi "Achoth" which means sister, see https://biblehub.com/hebrew/269.htm

I believe my sister was referring to the Greek letter monogram on top (really, more above) of the crescent, not the Hebrew letters inscribed on the crescent itself.

BetaIotaDZ I see that I didn't explain this clearly! I was referring to the Greek letters - Gamma, Phi and Beta - that "lay" on top of the crescent moon in monogram fashion, not the Hebrew lettering painted on the crescent itself. Or perhaps it would be clearer to say the letters that are 'cradled' in the crescent. If you were to see the badge from the side, you'd see the 'layers' and 3D effect I tried to describe...I don't know how to include pics so I couldn't show it.

Bingo! Thanks for the clarification as well.

^^^ the word you're looking for is "stacked". AOII badge also has stacked letters.

Hope that helps.