Armband (Peace Token)

This armband likely served as a gift for or was traded with a member of a Native American tribe. Production of "trade" silver appears to have represented a significant part of the work of silversmiths in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, as well as Montreal and other Canadian cities. Colonial and Federal Era records indicate items such as armbands, gorgets, medals, and pins, derived from European military regalia, were made for government entities and other Euro-Americans to use as diplomatic, peace, and friendship offerings to Native American leaders and in the fur trade. This silver was often engraved with pseudo-heraldic insignia, such as the modified arrow motif with foliate flourishes on this armband. Leather bands or string would have been used to secure the armband, and it could have been adorned with fur, wampum, or feathers. Silversmiths like John Moulinar, working in cities along the east coast of North America, began producing quantities of trade silver in the mid-eighteenth century. A second-generation colonist of Huguenot heritage, Moulinar was active in New York City as well as in Albany, another locus for the production of trade silver.