Old US Mail Padlock

Seawulff

Greenie
Mar 29, 2012
16
20
Illinois
Detector(s) used
E-Trac, Garrett ACE 250, Fisher CZ-21
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Slept in this morning as my sleeping patterns have been poor lately. Had an itch I just had to scratch though, so got out to an old park this afternoon. This spot has produced for me in the past. Hunted it for a little over an hour, not much luck until near the end of the hunt when I found the silver St. Peter pendant. This was about 5" down and rang up as a penny. It is stamped sterling on the reverse side.

Just after digging the pendant some passers by started chatting with me. One of them mentioned 2 lots just off the river in town that recently were bull dozed and now the city was making the empty lots into a small public park. They gave me directions and off I went. Found the spot easily, and sure enough the sign in front of the lot said the land was now part of the park district, . I only dug where the front yards were as the spots where the homes were and the back yard had new grass seed down and I didn't want to tear that up. Went up to an old oak by the sidewalk got a penny signal. Looked down and found a 1913 wheat sitting right on top the dirt.

Swung some more and found this beauty! She was about 1" down, very glad I dug her! She's a big, fat, heavy lock. Front reads, "REG'D US MAIL". Back reads "A 62582". There is a side on the lock that shows you how many times the lock has been used. However, I still can't quite read this even after tumbling, . I can barely read the last 2 digits which are 90 and this is only when I get it wet and under the light at the right angle, otherwise it's a bit 'fogged' over. The first first 2 digits I can't read though, too foggy. So I know it's been used 90 times perhaps more.

""REG'D U.S. MAIL" - "A". 2 1/2" high x 1 3/4" wide x 1 1/8" deep. Stamped brass case. Brass shackle. Pin tumbler. 3 pins. Made for: USPS. Mfg by: Mail Equipment Shops." This is quoted from antique-padlocks.com. Also more research tells me that these types of locks where used by the US Post office until the 1950s. Not sure how old mine is or how rare it might be. But still really cool none the less and I like it!

Besides the US plate I dug earlier this year, this is one of my favorite finds. Thanks for looking and HH.
 

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vpnavy

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jun 15, 2008
35,270
18,747
York County, PA (USA)
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
outstanding.gif
Outstanding PO Lock find Seawulff. Interesting, I searched EBay and was surprised how many of those puppies were being sold (and listed) in the UK. Thanks for sharing...
 

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