Brass silverware mold?

DocBeav · Feb 24, 2014

Found this HEAVY brass piece today while dirt hunting a neighbor's property....it is marked with the words "knife", "fork", and "spoon" so it seems quite obvious that is is some sort of mold but it also has the words "tag", "meatcan", "cup", "beding" and some other random charters. It also has a rusted metal pin on each side (like where the mold would fit together). Anyone know more about this piece? How old? Home made?

grouper · Feb 24, 2014

Maybe not a mold, but a stamping die? looks like it to me, but I'm no expert.

DocBeav · Feb 24, 2014

Stamping die maybe? Hmm...could be! I really have no idea on this one here...gonna have to keep doing some more searching....

Red-Coat · Feb 20, 2024

Just tidying up some blasts from the past (including some very ancient ones), largely for the benefit of anyone searching the site for information.

Cool find. That's an ‘anvil’ piece from a WWI-era US Military stamping kit used to personalise identity discs and mess kit items.

Although this listing refers to ‘dog tags’, the term didn’t come into usage for military identity tags until after 1936 and was popularised during WWII: