Thank you​ to everyone for your responses to the brass tag. I will look
into all of the possibilities you mentioned.

Shannon​

On Sat, Oct 3, 2015 at 6:59 AM, Bob Skiles <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Shannon,
>
> My guess would be that it is the fob off the end of a "cheap" watch-chain
> once belonging to George E. Corey of Hamlet, New York.
>
> A further guess might be that he could have been a student enrolled at the
> famed (Methodist) Cazenovia Seminary located in that town, (and even wilder
> and further imagined), as outlined in the history of that institution [
> First Fifty Years of Cazenovia Seminary 1825-1875: Its History, Proceedings
> ... 1877 ... see at page 52, here:
> https://books.google.com/books?id=5K9GAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA683&dq=%22Hamlet+NY%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDUQ6AEwA2oVChMIvL6sy7KmyAIVjJINCh1chQc7#v=onepage&q=watch&f=false
> ] he might have been presented a similar watch by his father [such was a
> traditional gift at the time on such an occasion ... ca. 1868] as that
> described for an actual enrolling seminarian, one Daniel D. Pratt:
>
> "His father made him a present of an old "bull's-eye" silver watch, valued
> at five dollars - not so much for its time-keeping capabilities, for it
> would not run a tick, but for the solid silver in it."
>
> The chains and fobs on those things, however, often tended to be less
> precious, like your example ... NOT solid silver, only plated.
>
> Regards,
>
> PS - For whatever it may be worth, according to the same source-book, Mr.
> John Williams, a teacher at Cazenovia, then [1877] deceased, had married
> Miss Eliza Corey in 1831. Further, according to another source [1884 Annual
> Report American Missionary Association 38:51] Miss Julia M. Corey of
> Hamlet, NY, was then a student at the LeMoyne Normal Institute at Memphis,
> TN.
>
>
> On 10/2/2015 11:59 PM, Shannon S. Mahoney wrote:
>
>> Does anyone have any ideas about the utilitarian purposes for this tag? I
>> would appreciate it (you can click past the dropbox sign in):
>>
>> https://www.dropbox.com/s/oa5ilmtgxriipe6/24060%20LC_Miner%20Tag.jpg?dl=0
>>
>> The tag reads: "Geo. E. Corey. / 1868 / Hamlet. N.Y."
>>
>> It was found in an 1860s mining camp in southeastern Nevada. I'll be
>> giving
>> a paper on this site at SHA 2016. So, stay tuned.
>>
>> Shannon
>>
>>
>