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Cleaned up a find from last summer- what might it be- brass/copper badge? Hat pin?
kevinstang
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Found a small baggy that had a few things in it that I found last summer - only problem is I didn't label date or location as I usually do on the bag. I think it may have come from the park near where I found the 1844 Half penny Canadian token or nearby. It appears to be brass or copper and was quite heavily encrusted, so it must have been in ground a long time. Cleaned it up a little tonight, appears to have had something mounted in center that is now gone and has some intricate design around border. Looks like at bottom (oposite of clasp end) to have possibly had some lettering that is mostly lost. Could it have been a hat pin or something similar worn on a soldier's uniform- I guess I am hopeing on finding something from the colonial or prior period as there was a French/British fort nearby. Any ideas?- its probably about 1/2 dollar size or so.
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I have never seen one like that,most I have seen is pre-civil war and civil war period.So your piece is most likely from the mid to late 1800's.
Nice find and HH,Tom
Your missing tounge might have had a design or maybe the owners initials.
It appears to be half of a sword belt plate.
I would say there is a possibility it is of the colonial period, or the early 19th century at the latest. Perhaps civilian, as Tom mentioned, though I would think not necessarily so- some of the early sword belt plates and so on used by the military might not have been marked with unit names or abbreviations as they were later, during the Civil War. Unfortunately I lack reference material on the earlier ones. I do have a book on Confederate plates that shows many with a wreath or leaf design on the outer part of the plate, but not quite like that.
I think it is earlier than Tom's assessment: I would put it at early 1800s or even slightly older, back into the late 1700s, judging from its style. But I'm no expert on these.