G.U.G. Germania

One of the challenges facing the collector of Germanic (and other foreign language) medals is the language. The German language is very literal and as such names of things tend to be very descriptive; made up of smaller component words covering all aspects of the description and are often run together as one long word. Since the words are so long and the medals are so small abbreviations were often used. These initials can be quite cryptic to collectors who generations later are without the inside knowledge needed to decipher the mysterious initials.
The medal pictured on the left was the first one with this neat design that I ever bought. For many years I guessed up a list of potential names to match the initials. Then as time went on with my newly educated eyes I found the next two items which spelled out the answer to my little mystery. This gold membership medal was from the “GEGENSEITIGE UNTERSTUETZUNGS GESELLSCHAFT GERMANIA” which was a mutual insurance society.