tin medal
n.— «You can let your hair grow long, shove your sombrero on to the back of your head, strike your breast close to where you’ve pinned that tin medal you made yourself.» —“Medicine Man Gets Patriotic” Washington Post Oct. 6, 1907. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Katie in Everett, Washington, is curious about the expression If ifs and ands were pots and pans, there’d be no need for tinkers. What is a tinker? She heard this phrase on the television series The Gilded Age, in response to a character who...