Any ideas

[mattgaudian]

Found this tonight it's the size of a penny and has the patent date May 27 1879. Has a star in the middle.

 

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[hbeaton]

May be part of the internal gearing or cap piece to an early example of a fire escape device. A patent search on the date came back with the following result from the same date in 1879 from a E.M. Ball improving upon earlier designs.

Take a look at Figure 3 and specifically the item labeled "B" it looks like your item (without the patent date of course) and maybe the other tip piece of the circlet fell off.

Just a guess, could be something else but have a look. Click on the schematic image to enlarge

Patent US215713 - Improvement in fire-escapes - Google Patents

HH!