Very interesting. Haven’t seen one of those before.
The year of the patent isn’t very clear, but I think it has to be 1903. US patents take their grant date from the patent bulletin which has been traditionally published on Tuesdays. The only years in the 20th Century ending in a ‘3’ where 12th May was a Tuesday were 1903 and 1953.
If it is 1903, that puts the date before the commencement of the canal being dug and my guess is that it’s the patent date for the steam shovel/bucket excavator or whatever pictured on the other side (and presumably used during the construction of the canal). I would bet that the wording “the material contained herein” means that the metal used to cast the item has had some of the excavated material mixed into it (sand, crushed rock or whatever) as a souvenir. Perhaps for workers on the canal or employees of the company that made the excavator. I would think it’s a watch fob and the only odd thing is the absence of any company name relating to the patent.
There were lots of companies whose equipment was used during the project, notably steam shovels made by Le Roy Marion or Bucyrus but many others too. I couldn’t find patents granted to either of those companies on 12th May 1903. There were some promising possibilities such as Rezin Hosford’s “Gravel or Sand Dredge” (727623), W.E. & P.J. Maloney’s “Excavator” (727656) and Frank E. Potter’s “Machine for Hoisting, Conveying, or Excavating” (727,836) but I don’t know if any of those have a connection to the canal. I didn’t search exhaustively, so there may be other possibilities.
