Silver Awards Webelos

[FieldSports]

The top awards in Scouting are meant to be Silver. Silver arrow points, silver palms, the Eagle is silver, silver beavers, etc.

Why is the Arrow of Light GOLD?

Does anyone have history on this award?

[Nuts4Scouts]

Actually, in Cub Scouts, the first arrow point you earn is gold.

I can't say that I have ever seen in any BSA publication that "the top awards in Scouting are meant to be Silver".

[pipestone1991]

Never seen anything that relates to silver being "the highest color/shade". That's just the way they wanted the AoL, that's all.

[FieldSports]

Silver Award - Highest for Venture Rank
Silver Palm - Highest for Eagle Scout Rank
Silver Arrow Points - Highest for Wolf/Bear Rank
Silver border on old Lion Rank for Cub Cub Scouts
Silver Beaver/Antelope/Buffulo Highest for Adults

So, while it might not be written anywhere. It certainly is Silver as the highest. I have read that it has to do with old military insignia colors, etc.

So, again why is the Arrow of Light not Silver? Anybody with a history or cite on this?

[Mrw]

My guess would be that rays of light coming from the arrow would look goofy in silver.

[Chief J]

My guess would be that rays of light coming from the arrow would look goofy in silver.

That would be my guess

Chief J

[milominderbinder2]

My guess would be that rays of light coming from the arrow would look goofy in silver.

The seven golden rays of sunlight remind you to that you are to do your best every day of the week. I don't have my Webelos Book with me, but that is pretty close to the wording in the book.

Silver is the highest color due to BP's military background. This is also why in school you go from first grade to second but in Boy Scouts the Second Class rank comes before First Class. In the US Army, a First Lieutenant is a higher rank than a Second Lieutenant. Both insignia are a single bar but the First Lieutenant wears a silver bar and the Second Lieutenant wears a single gold bar. Here is more info on ranks in the US Army.

The tradition of silver being of a higher stature than gold goes back thousands of year. Although gold has always been more rare, silver could be polished into much better mirrors. Since silver does little to alter colors, it was viewed by many cultures as being more "pure".

Another common exception to silver being the highest in the BSA world is that many councils use gold as the highest color for their FOS CSP's because to the general populace, gold is the higher color.

- Craig

[mhjacobson]

Actually silver was used as the higher of the ranks for the US military as Ben Franklin noted that Silver was a harder metal than gold (why it polishes better), and that use of gold insignia should represent the fact that the men in the lower ranks were more moldable. In some other countries, gold is used for the upper ranks.