The medallion was first given to Alan McGregor Whyte's family and was later found in a scrapyard in Kurri Kurri in the Hunter region.

Paul King's family ran that scrapyard and during a cleanup found the unusual medallion.

"I think it was brought in a collection and was then set aside as it was something unusual," he said.

Once Mr King learned what the 'dead man's penny' was for, he tried to track down Whyte's descendants and the medallion was spent some time in a drawer.

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During a visit to the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne where Mr King's son lives, he saw other medallions which were on display.

This time, Mr King found an article in The Area News reporting the work by volunteers with Griffith's RSL sub-branch to memorialise the men who gave their lives in World War I.

After contacting Theo Bollen, it was decided Mr King would donate the medallion to the museum.

Mr King said he was happy to see the medallion 'head home'.

"It's a good place for it to return to," Mr King said.

Alan McGregor Whyte, from Willbrigga Siding in Carrathool parish, enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force on February 9, 1915.

He was killed in action on October 8, 1917.

Mr Bollen said Whyte's medallion would be the second for the museum, with another held at Pioneer Park.

He said it was an example of Griffith's history which didn't just begin in 1916 when the town was gazetted.

"There is history that goes back to Bagtown, and before that there were small settlements and indigenous communities in the area," he said.

Across the British Empire, there were 1,355,000 bronze medallions - or dead man's pennies, given to families of soldiers killed in the First World War.

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