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Any Civil War ID Tag experts?


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This tag is from my Dad's collection. He bought it on ebay in 2006 from Will Gorges (Battleground Antiques), so I don't doubt it's authenticity. If everything is correct, it belonged to 1st Lt. Newell Grace from 24 Michigan Infantry Regiment Co. H. What I wanted to see is there are any experts on these that would verify if everything looked correct because this guy died on the first day of Gettysburg and obviously you need your ducks in a row to present something that is associated with Gettysburg because everyone wants their item from there. The measurements are 1.262" dia., .033" thick, and it weighs 5 grams. The front has "US 1863" around the hole and "24 MICH INF". On the flip side it has "1ST LT N GRACE", the T in LT is upside down, the C in Grace is backwards. I looked at the 24 Mich. roster and they only had one N Grace and that would have to be Newell Grace.

 

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Marktk36thIL

Coincidentally, he also is killed on July 1st, at Gettysburg. 

 

I'm extremely suspect to the point I'd call BS. ID tags are not my thing, but that has too much "going" for it.

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ludwigh1980

To me this looks like it was stamped out on a WW1 dog tag marking kit using a brass blank. It looks like the similar font that the punches of that kit contains and then it was artificially aged. It looks inconsistent with any civil war period ID disks that I have seen however I am far from being and expert. 

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6 hours ago, Marktk36thIL said:

Coincidentally, he also is killed on July 1st, at Gettysburg. 

 

I'm extremely suspect to the point I'd call BS. ID tags are not my thing, but that has too much "going" for it.

 

That's exactly why I'm asking. I was suspicious because it was sold by a supposedly reputable person, but he paid $20 for it (in 2006). To be fair it was sold as "Civil War ID Disc, 24 Mich Inf Reg. Iron Brigade" and nothing about Gettysburg. The problem I have is that if you have someone who runs one of the biggest Civil War collecting businesses, you'd think they would check the name out on it. I would. My dad looked the name up and came up with the background. He did a lot of notes on researching items he had so I'll have to see if he had anything saying he was suspicious about it.

 

The misspellings were also suspicious to me because I would think a Lt. would have a little nicer ID tag and then would have not paid unless they corrected the spelling.

 

Well thanks for taking a look and giving your input. I'll put this on the worthless pile (so far this is the only item thankfully).

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USCapturephotos
On 3/27/2021 at 12:21 PM, sundance said:

USCapturephotos, Just to educate me could you let me know the red flag(s) you are seeing. I know nothing about these ID tags.

Sorry. I didn’t see your post until now. There were many styles of id discs made of brass and other silver id shields  , corps badges etc, that were commonly purchased by soldiers during the war. Many sutlers would set up nearby to camps and would sell the soldiers the discs. The soldiers could get their name, unit id, battle honors or whatever they wanted stamped into the discs with small size die stamps. The silver shields were often jeweler engraved. Your piece does not have the quality of a typical war badge and even looks artificially aged to me. There was a rash of fake Civil War tags and even silver engraved coins with Confederate officers names that flooded the market back in the 90’s. A KIA from the Iron Brigade at Gettysburg would be a prime target for the fakers. There have been a few good books on id discs put out and other information in Civil War publications like the North South Trader. Their most recent issue had a recently found Vermont soldiers id disc. 
Hope that helps a little.

Paul

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 3/27/2021 at 7:29 PM, Wraith_3 said:

 

That's exactly why I'm asking. I was suspicious because it was sold by a supposedly reputable person, but he paid $20 for it (in 2006). To be fair it was sold as "Civil War ID Disc, 24 Mich Inf Reg. Iron Brigade" and nothing about Gettysburg. The problem I have is that if you have someone who runs one of the biggest Civil War collecting businesses, you'd think they would check the name out on it. I would. My dad looked the name up and came up with the background. He did a lot of notes on researching items he had so I'll have to see if he had anything saying he was suspicious about it.

 

The misspellings were also suspicious to me because I would think a Lt. would have a little nicer ID tag and then would have not paid unless they corrected the spelling.

 

Well thanks for taking a look and giving your input. I'll put this on the worthless pile (so far this is the only item thankfully).

 

 

$20? 

 

Seems it was sold as repro/ fantasy piece with that price tag. 

 

In 2006, it still should have been well over $1,000 just for the Iron BDE connection.

 

Scott

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  • 2 weeks later...

Look up ID tags form other members of the 24 Michigan, or other members of regiments in the Iron Brigade of the West. I would expect to find several tags almost identical in size and stamp fonts.  Chances are the soldier obtained it from someone who was making tags for other soldiers at the same time.

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iron bender

I bought two of these at Shiloh in 1987, can't remember who made them. Pretty sure everyone in our unit bought one. I've elctropenciled out the info and turned it into an extra truck key fob. This one measures 1.252 x .050 thick. Perhaps the guy making these was copying a known original. This is simply for reference as a reproduction

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