Found today. Any idea what it is?

[dburdick]

Found this today in northeast PA. I was hunting an area south of Towanda PA. Anyone have a clue what it is?

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[DCMatt]

Looks like a tool check token/tag. Is there mining in that area?

DCMatt

 

[Giant056]

Maybe a hotel keyfob

 

[dburdick]

Yes there were gold and coal mines in the area

 

[chrispy123]

Looks like it has something to do with a railroad. the font is similar to stuff iv seen befroe

 

[dburdick]

I found it within 100 yards of an old rail road.

 

[highnam]

Found this today in northeast PA. I was hunting an area south of Towanda PA. Anyone have a clue what it is?

My guess would be a railroad employee's numbered I.D. Token. I found one similar in a 100 year old railroad logging camp. There was sometimes a I.D. token issued to each man with a similar numbered token of the same number attached to the cookhouse table to identify your seat. Less confusion and kept freeloaders from getting a free meal.

 

[submarine]

I have one, and a friend of mine has three. They are mine car tags. When coal or other material was loaded by hand the miner would put his tag on the car he loaded.

 

[dburdick]

Do they have any value?

 

[dburdick]

And any idea on how old it might be?

 

[submarine]

Ours are from around 1880 and are "valued" at $25-30. We know where ours are from because of the mine that used to be there. Yours is similar to ours, so I would make an estimated guess that it would be the same unless its from a gold mine. Anything to do with gold is more valuable for nostalgic reasons. Good find!

 

[dburdick]

The New Albany gold mine is just a couple of miles from where I found this.

 

[submarine]

If it is from the gold mine I wouldn't take any less than $50 if it were mine and I was going to sell it.

 

[MightyMouse]

When i lived in WV i use to find ones sorta like that. Normal there ID tags for people heading down into the mine. Board set up somewhere near mine would have your name on it and an in and out hook. When you were heading in you hung your tag on the in when you came out you would flip it to out. This way was an easy way to see who might still be left in mine. More so if there was ever a cavein searchers would know. The tags i found were sorta like yours.