Fancy patriotic ink stamp found in Hinds county, MS

[Ripcon]

I have posted this on a couple of other areas of treasurenet but I wanted to post it here as well. I found this near Champion Hill by the railroad. It's a signature ink stamp. The signature insert is missing but the rest of the stamp is there. Let me know if you can give me more information about this stamp. Thanks.

 

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[angleofattack]

Do you think it had a signature or was it meant to be signed in the blank?

 

[Ripcon]

I was told that it was designed to have a signature plate that would insert into that blank space. The signature plate would have been purchased and custom made by a master jeweler.
You can see at the back of the stamp where the key inserted that would lock the signature into place.
Most normal people couldn't have afforded to have a signature made. Must have been somebody with financial means.

 

[Spats]

These were sold to soldiers by sutlers during the Civil War. Rather than a single insert, they had individual letter type blocks that the sutler would put together to form a name. A thumbscrew was tightened to hold the letters together.

 

[Eagledigs]

That's awesome. I have hunted up and down that track where Midway Station was located on the Champion property. Never found anything that cool.

 

[45th_Johnny]

Very nice. Thank you for sharing.