City of Wilmington, State of NC 1866 tag/pin

[DetectorMoe]

I found this a week ago on last Sunday, A seal tag/pin..
The seal of the city shall be of circular shape and is described as follows: In the center is a hive located on a stand, built at the water's edge, about and around which bees are at work; partly encircling this hive is a vegetation; immediately below the platform is the date 1866; above the hive the word "Preserve"; encircling the border are the words, "City of Wilmington," "State of north Carolina." (The date of 1866 reflects the new charter the city received after the Civil War. Later the date of 1866 was replaced with 1739 to reflect the city's past.) I don't know when the date was change, So this tag could be a rare one??
https://library.uncw.edu/guides/wilmington_information

 

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[empty_pockets]

What is the symbolism of the beehive on Wilmington’s city seal?
Ben Steelman
StarNews

Wilmington’s town fathers probably weren’t honoring the local beekeeping industry when they adopted the city seal back in 1866. The beehive (which appears to be sitting in a swamp or marsh) seems to refer to business, industriousness and progress, suggested Beverly Tetterton, local history librarian with the New Hanover County Public Library.

Exactly why the beehive was chosen is something of a mystery, as is the choice of the city motto, “Persevere.” (The “1739″ is not so mysterious, though; that’s the year Wilmington was chartered.)

Beehives appear fairly frequently on state and municipal seals in North America. A beehive is on the state seal of Utah (nickname: “The Beehive State”) and on the city seals of Quebec City in Canada, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Lewiston, Maine, Hamilton, Ontario, and East Chicago, Ill., to name a few. Not all of them feature the beehive so prominently, though.

Some city employees tried to launch a move in 2005 to replace the beehive with some design that seemed a little more relevant to Wilmington’s status as a Southern port city and tourist mecca. Nothing much came of the effort, though; apparently too many locals just like the beehive too much.

Date posted: July 9, 2009

 

[Juice in the hole]

Very cool find!

That says "Persevere" and not "Preserve". I'm not sure if that was a typo or not, but just pointing that out.

Some observations: Wilmington is called the Port City, a beehive represents activity and possibly prosperity. The coin is dated right after the Civil War, so possibly it's a pin to represent reconstruction and to "Persevere" during reconstruction?

ETA: North Carolina (and therefore Wilmington) wasn't part of the United States from 1861-1868, so I'm not really sure of the significance to the city regarding 1866 other than what I typed above.