She was only 3 days old.

[Bigcypresshunter]

I posted this here last year, but have yet to positively ID. We have some new members and I could get some new thoughts. It is silver and very THIN like a tag and the size of a quarter. Its hand engraved on the front in Old English copperplate script:

Jo-Ann L. Hall
12-30-43--1-2-44

There are some official looking numbers on the back: G-1506.

The back is also hand engraved. The numbers may coincide with a US military grave plot but what cemetery?... What century?

Plot G- Row 15- Grave 06?

 

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[stoney56]

Most of the love tokens I've seen or read about were from the 1800's-about the time of the War of the Rebellion (aka Civil War).

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I do believe now that is what it is--a Love Token. It is exactly the size of a quarter but 1/2 thickness. What US coin was a quarter size in 1844?

 

[stoney56]

For one, if US then it may be a Seated Liberty quarter 1838-1891. Prior to that was the Capped Bust quarter 1815-1838.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

OK. Is the metal/silver percent composition the same in the Seated Liberty as compared to a 1944 George Washington?

 

[Klaatu]

I do believe now that is what it is--a Love Token. It is exactly the size of a quarter but 1/2 thickness. What US coin was a quarter size in 1844?

The quarter was a quarter in 1844. The quarter was slightly larger in diameter before 1831 (27 mm vs 24.3 mm). Other than a couple of minor weight changes due to the fluctuating value of silver it remained the same size and silver content through 1964. Yes, the Seated Liberty quarter of the 1840s was a 90% silver coin just like the Washington quarter although slightly heavier.

My first instinct was the piece is a love token from the 1840s, not 1940s. As others have stated, love tokens had their heyday in the 19th century.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Klaatu, Thanks for the Love Token theory. I have been trying to positively ID the century of this find for a very long time. I was able to find this on Treasure Beach only after Hurricane Jeanne along with a 1715 artifact. It was coral incrusted and I thought it was trash. The metal is very strong, like 90% silver. I thought I might finally ID the date by metal composition percentage.
You think 1844? This is where it gets interesting. There was an attempted settlement in Indian River but failed because of Indian hostilities and by 1850 was abandoned. Here is the whole story from last August if anyone is interested or missed it. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,19394.0.html

 

[tokenhead]

i agree with klaatu...a VARIATION of a love token.love tokens were at there hieght during the civil war up to the victorian days,although i have hade variations of love tokens from W.W.1,past that it was not practiced that much,some prison art&folk art(hobo nickles,etc)continued to do this.TO ME it looks to be made by a mourning parent,probably the father for the mother to wear.also TO ME im sure it's not a coffin tag,not ornate enough.the #'s on the back could be a grave marker #,but why?would you forget where your baby was buried?maybe it was there phone# if lost,they do corrospond with phone#'s of the 40's.anyway those are my 2 cents worth!

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Phone number. Thats a theory nobody thought of. Someone here found a tag with a 3 digit phone number. So I guess it is possible. I remember as a kid our phone number started with 2 letters. I could check to see if the letter G was used in the area in the forties. Thanks.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

CannonballGuy, Thanks for the input. The tag/token might even be from the 1700's. I wish I knew. There was a Spanish Reale the exact size of a modern quarter. I know this because I used one in a payphone one time when I was desperate.

The interesting thing about this is where I found it on Florida's famous Treasure Coast after the hurricanes. Nobody lived there in 1844, except one small failed colony, driven away by Indian hostilities. Is this from that failed original settlement? Nobody swam there in 1944, unless you were a Navy Seal. There are however many shipwrecks on this coast, and two unidentified wrecks directly off shore from my find. There were many Hall families in the British colonies of Barbados, Jamaica, and the Bahamas; even in the 1600's.
If I could find a descendant I would like to return it and ask how did it get to where I found it? If you have time, you can read the whole story in "What is it" back in August. That is when I learned enough computer skills to post! LOL Thanks again.

 

[Klaatu]

Cannonball,

I agree with you about the possibility of the coin being a Spanish coin. But I have to disagree with your theory of the coin going through a "coin smasher"; this would have created an elongated coin and this one is still round. (Just like with a balloon, if you squeeze a coin to make it thinner it will spread out.)

This coin is thinner than a quarter (or similar Spanish coin) but the same diameter as a quarter (or similar Spanish coin). That points to the coin being filed down, which was the first step of making a love token (to make a smooth surface on which to engrave).

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

It is round? Ahhhhh! Okay. Thanks for that info, Klaatu. As photographed, the item looks oval-shaped ...and my "wheel-pressed" theory was based on that. I also remember putting pennies on a railroad-track, and after being run over, they'd be oval-shaped ...and thinner. ;-)

Regards,
TheCannonballGuy

 

[Klaatu]

Cannonball,

I looked at the pic again and I see what you mean - it does look oval at first glance. I can't recall if the finder said if it was still round or not. He said in the original post that it is "the size of a quarter". Maybe I assumed that meant it was also the shape of a quarter - round. Maybe bigcypress can clear this up for us.

 

[silverswede]

Just some thinking on your find. My Grandmother emigrated from Sweden in the mid 1800's and told stories of the terrible crossing the Atlantic, and of the people that died, especially children. They were buried at sea in improvised coffins. could this possiblely be a marker made for that occasion. If so there could be records.

 

[Reanm8er]

Greetings Bch, I searched ancestry.com and couldn't get a relative hit. Jo-ann, Joann, Joanne Fla and adjacent states and even nationwide, no hits. I've reconsidered the coffin tag idea because it would likely have 2 screw holes instead of one. Perhaps a keepsake worn on a leather cord? Could it be dated by the style of block lettering in the G1506?

 

[invent4hir]

BCH, IMO it is a noble thing to make an effort to return the tag to a family member. I haven't read all the posts but do know that some genealogy research has been done and posted here. While I am an amateur at best, I do know a lot of genealogy records have yet to be indexed and thus not found by a search engine, only by human eye going through an image of each page line-by-line. The good news is, many book images are on-line. The bad news is I think you need to know a locale where she or a relative lived. Also, the eye strain can be overwhelming. Probably someone has already mentioned this, but consider posting on the genealogy page - as someone may have better news. Good luck!

 

[Gare]

Could it possibly be a like a rememberence type bracelet ?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Could it possibly be a like a rememberence type bracelet ?

Sorry I have not posted in a while. Yes I think its possible a remembrance tag or love token lost on the beach but the numbers on the backside seem odd for that unless its a cemetery grave number.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

What about a cremation tag ?

The engraving style is 1800s- early 1900s. I dont know what century this token was engraved but my research found there were no cremations in 1844. All the 20th century cremation tags found have been stainless. The other thought is that silver would melt or burn up with the bones.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Here is what I posted in 2005 on the original Treasure Beach Find thread: https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/treasure-beach-find.10760/

Copy and Paste from 2005:

I hope I'm not boring anyone, but something is telling me to find out the mystery of this artifact. Who is this child, who made this tag, for what purpose, and in what century? Heavily encrusted on the face side, buried so deep in the dunes, uncovered only after two successive hurricanes; it must be old. I don't see a match with modern stainless steel cremation tags. The first legal cremation being in 1872, in Great Britain. I checked Vero Beach history at http://www.rootsweb.com/~flindian/timeline.htm. The US Army established a post at Fort Vinton in 1842. The first settlers arrived in Indian River with promise of land if they bear arms against the Indians. But the inhabitants of this county were driven from it on account of Indian hostilities, and few of them would return. By 1850, Ft. Vinton was abandoned. Was JoAnn L. Hall a child from this failed original Indian River colony? 1850 census- http://ftp.rootsweb.com/pub/usgenweb/fl/stlucie/census/1850/pg0222a.txt -lists a Michael Hall in the US Army. Could he be related? Could this be some kind of official coffin or toe tag? What do the numbers G1506 mean? I think this is the key to positive identification. I am writing to the Vero Beach Historical Society and will keep y'all updated. My prayers go out for New Orleans evacuees. cypresshunter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Vinton

Site of Fort Vinton Historical Marker

A few miles southwest of this marker is the site of Fort Vinton. As white settlers moved into Florida, demands increased for the removal of the Seminole Indians to a western reservation. (A historical marker located in Vero Beach in Indian River County, Florida.)

www.hmdb.org

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Reading back on the original thread from 2005, it appears someone found a Jo Anna Hall born on the same date in Virginia. Does anybody know how to do a genealogy search to double check this?