I should know this ... coat of arms or fantasy piece?

It's a pin that's been reworked from something else, possibly a hat badge? The hanging sheep is the Brooks Brothers logo.

 

Castles + lions = Spain.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Spain

Debora

 

It wants to be, but doesn't quite make it. I'm guessing it's military.

 

The hanging sheep is part of the town arms of several British towns much involved in the wool trade, such as Leeds.

 

The sheep represents the Order of the Golden Fleece.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Golden_Fleece

Debora

 

The coa is that of the lesser royals of Spain 1700-1868. Spain has had hundreds of variations in her many coa's over the centuries.

 

Interesting. I wonder how it landed where I found it.

 

St. Augustine Golden Fleece Key to Castillo

Golden Fleece key to Castillo shield

 

Like I said...

Castles + lions = Spain.

Debora

 

Good info from a couple of old post cards...

CardCow.com Coat of Arms- Saint Augustine, Florida
The above heraldic emblem is a copy of the ancient coat of arms carved over a doorway at Fort Marion, St. Augustine, Fla. The same heraldic device was on Columbus' banner when he landed in the new world. It comprises the arms of Castile (castle) and Leon (lion rampant), two kingdoms made one by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. Around the outside is the grand cordon of the Golden Fleece, a chain of alternate steels and flints, striking fire, with the Fleece suspended beneath


(State Archives of Florida)
Saint Augustine Chronology and Coat of Arms.
"Florida discovered by Ponce de Leon, 1513.
St. Augustine founded by Menendez, 1565.
Plundered and burned by Sir Francis Drake, 1586.
Post Office, Formerly Spanish Governor's Mansion. Built 1598.
St. Augustine burned by John Davis, a pirate, 1665.
Wooden part of town burned by Governor Moore of South Carolina, 1702.
City Gates, built 1702-27.
Besieged by Oglethorpe, governor of Georgia, 1740.
Fort Marion, begun 1586, completed 1756.
Florida ceded to Great Britain in exchange for Cuba, 1762.
Re-ceded to Spain in exchange for Bahama Islands, 1784.
Old Cathedral, built in 1793-97; partly re-built after fire in 1887.
Spanish Monument, in Plaza, erected in 1812.
Florida ceded to U.S. for five million dollars, 1821.
Sea Wall, built 1835-37.
Old Slave Market, built in 1840.
St. Augustine, Florida, Oldest City in the United States Under Three Flags"

Where did you find it?

 

"The same heraldic device was on Columbus' banner when he landed in...."

Sorry that's incorrect. I studied Spain's coa researching an article I did on a certain Spanish cannon in the Museum of the USNavy in Washington. The cannon had that same COA cast into it with a sign saying the particular cannon had been brought to the New World by Cortez in the late 15th C. My research showed that the closed crown was not "invented" for the Spanish crown until the 17th C., and the coa crowns prior to that were open on top, meaning the spikes pointed upward to open air, there was no line over the spikes.

 

Castles and lions are also frequently British. This one isn't though.

 

Link to my article discussing the so-called "Cortez Gun"

http://military-historians.org/cgi-bin/member/forum.pl?md=read;id=5569

 

It's a Saint Augustine Florida, souvenir brooch.

 

Looks like, but it's an old one. Someone cared about this too; it had another pin back on it at some point, oriented the other way. It was either broken or deliberately removed. The way it's curved, I have to wonder if it wasn't mimicking the cannon.

 

It might have been attached to something else.

 

The pin was originally vertical, circa 1900-1909 Edwardian. Champleve enameled.

http://aarf.com/feflsouv01.htm

 

Think Andy's talking about the item on left in 4th image. Would be nice to know what the maker's mark if any on that one is, it was made I think intentionally different from OP's (or v/v) both in outline shape and COA details.

 

The 7th image down shows the COA dated 1750, on a Spanish mortar that once guarded the fort known to the Spanish as Castillo de SAN Marcos in St. Augustine, FL.

http://jamesdjulia.com/item/1402-369/

That was one of my favorite items before we sent it to auction, I spent dozens of hours researching it over a period of 30 years.

 

I have a feeling mine isn't silver, but it's worth a little acid to find out. You never can tell.