Machotick medal, obverse

Silver medal inscribed on obverse, The King of and on the reverse Machotick, [Machodoc], with both sides engraved with flowers and cornucopia. The medal is pierced as is it were to be hung on a chain around the neck. It is assumed that the medal was presented by Virginia General Assembly to the Machodoc Chief ca. 1662 in compliance with an act of the General Assembly respecting Indian badges (passports or tokens of amity) passed in March 1661/62. This Machodoc badge was uncovered at Camden, Caroline County, Virginia in November, 1964 during excavations at an Indian site conducted by the Upper Rappahannock Chapter of the Archeological Society of Virginia working under the supervision of Howard W. McCord, Archeologist on the staff of the Virginia State Library. Silver badges were worn by chiefs as passports for entering English settlements; warriors wore copper badges. The VHS also has the badge for the chief of the Potomacs (1834.1). Colonial Williamsburg has one marked Pamunkie and the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation has the only copper one, marked Appamattuck. 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. The badges, therefore, enabled the colonists to pinpoint blame if a visiting tribesman violated their hospitality. silver