The Royal Arcanum life insurance company was founded in Boston in
1887.
The Knights of Honor which is a part of the Masons fraternal
organization attempted to form a life insurance plan for its members.
However that company failed because of a poor understanding of sound
annuity practices.
The Royal Arcanum company has prospered and has become a success in the
fraternal life insurance business
as a not-for-profit fraternal based benefit society.
This very interesting sterling spoon features a lot of images.
The bowl tells us that it was produced by the Grand Council of Rhode
Island
and was instituted on April 24, 1890 as a division of the Royal
Arcanum.
The symbol in the center of the bowl is a variation on the Seal of the
state of Rhode Island.
above the seal is the date 1903-04 which I assume is when this
spoon was made.
On the stem are the words "virtue" "mercy" "charity"
The code VMC 1105 appears to be the main policy program.
Apparently a couple of different versions of this spoon were made
including one with a plain bowl
Also a number of pins were made by this company in the past.
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