Sutlers Token? ID Help needed.

[James B. in Mass]

OK, so I doubt it is a Sutlers Token, but I found a similar item listed on ebay and it got me wondering what exactly it is. Sorry for the poor quality pics, but it is exactly like the item listed in the ebay auction, but mine has 141 stamped on it instead of 67.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Civil-War-Battlefield-Dug-Token-67-Sutlers-Token_W0QQitemZ130112721464QQihZ003QQcategoryZ3456QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[attachment 58354 disc.jpg]

Also (just because I'm proud of the find), I found this small crotal bell this past weekend and was wondering if anybody has ever found something similar or might know the approximate age of this little guy.
I have been fortunate enough to find quite a few intact crotal bells but they have always been the "petal" type which are easy to date (especially when they have a makers mark)... usually late 1700's-early 1800's.

This one does not have a makers mark, is small (one of the smallest I've found), made of pewter, and has 6 stars around it's circumference. It has quite a pleasant rattle too.

[attachment 58359 crotal.jpg]

Again... sorry for the poor qualitly photos as I am just getting use to this new camera. I can try again if it will help.

 

[GetRdone]

I have found the same kind of tag (you call token) here in the midwest, farmers had them on collars for their cattle (purebred), to keep track of mothers and the calves they gave birth too, may have similar uses in other parts of the country.

 

[James B. in Mass]

Thanks GetRdone. That's what I was origially thinking when I found it, but then I saw the ebay auction and it made me wonder if it might have had a different application.

 

[TigerRifle]

GetRdone is right, it is a cattle tag...Like you, I've also seen them on e-Bay with sellers trying to claim that they were Confederate ID tags with Regimental numbers on them as well as sutlers tokens.

The cattle tags can be found in about every state in the union.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

I have found 3 of those in the last month. Two in one day. I was a coal miner and we had a tag with our employee's # on them. We also used them at construction site. When we would go into the mines we took our tag from the out board and put it on the in board. When we left the mines we took it off the in board and put it on the out board. A man would look at the in board and if a tag was there he knew that person was still in the mines. The first one I found was at a mine site. The other two was at my mother's old homestead. All my family was coal miners. I don't have any pictures of them right now. If you want I can take some pictures of them tomorrow.

 

[Golden]

n/t

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

The top one was found at an old coal mine site that is now a park. The other two was found at a log cabin from the 1800's. That is where my mother was born. It was farm country, but had a coal mine nearby.
[attachment 58458 5-30-07tags.jpg]

 

[amona]

Hi John
Nice tags!! you said "That is where my mother was born"
How is the condition of that cabin at the moment you detected?

Amona

 

[James B. in Mass]

Thanks for posting the pictures of your tags John. It looks exactly like the one that I found, but mine must have been for some other application as there are no coal mines up in my area. There was however, once an old Rail Road near the site where I found it. It might have had some use there.

 

[John 'n' W.Va]

This picture is from an old post on page two. It was a two room cabin, with a cellar under one room. It had a chimney in the middle. There were pieces of iron stove, saw blades and lots of metal laying everywhere. I could see where the privy was. It is a two mile hike straight up and straight down to get to it. I went with a small digger. I could hardly pack out what I did find.

[attachment 58483 4-21-07_log_cabin.jpg]

 

[amona]

Interesting

 

[adam in cal]

those are from the coal mine, each worker was assigned a number, when he went down in the mine he took the number off the board and when he returned he put the number back up, this way they could account for each worker and if something did happen or a number was not back at days end then they knew they had a missin man, those tags are not Cattle tags and have nothing to do with cows or cattle ......

 

[MonDak]

I've found about 8 or so of these tags at old coal mineing sites.
The local historical society concurs with Adam in Ca, an John n W Va.
Here are three different versions of the ones I've found.