Civil War "Dog Tag"?

[lowflyer1942]

The person's name, etc., are imprinted on a well worn 1846 One Cent coin. Was there a 54th New York regiment, and what are the marks on the other side of the coin?

[manayunkman]

I googled it for you and the answer is yes.

[USCapturephotos]

There was a 54th NY Vols. They were one of those regiments that served all over the place. I could not find that name listed anywhere in the rolls when doing a quick search however. It’s not typical of the usual Civil War Id discs not to say that there weren’t some handmade variations. I’m not convinced this is one however.

Good luck!

Paul

[danimal03]

hello, I concur with USCapturephotos.  Homemade versions did exist.  However, without provenance, this would be a tough sell as legitimate.  Someone could have taken a well-worn large cent and stamped some info on it.  I handled a Richmond rifle today.  We had to call in an expert as these as so difficult to evaluate.  I was impressed with his knowledge.  He stated that his opinion was the rifle we had was a 'put together' with mostly period parts.  The lockplate was stellar.  But it all started to come apart from there. There were signs of nonperiod 'additions'.  At worst we had a rifle put together by a collector and not a CS armorer... that was likely done in the 1950's or so, so it showed legitimate age. Sometimes one will never know when it comes to items like these .... agree. good luck!

[MAW]

The style of stamping does not look like 19th Century to me.  Certainly atypical. 

 

 

[268th C.A.]

I Agree with MAW, it could be an old re enactors dog tag, I had one many years ago. They took an old large cent that had zero value as a coin and made a dog tag with it. JMO

[lowflyer1942]

42 minutes ago, 268th C.A. said:

I Agree with MAW, it could be an old re enactors dog tag, I had one many years ago. They took an old large cent that had zero value as a coin and made a dog tag with it. JMO

This actually makes sense given how I found the tag. Years ago I acquired a US M1855 cartridge box complete with slings, tins, plates and a signature. Inside was this "dog tag". The name Whitman did not match the signature on the cartridge box. Therefore, maybe a previous owner of the cartridge box was a reenactor who used the box accordingly.