Joe:

I have seen similar tags with similar markings but made of lead or other
soft metal and one possible aluminum one from the 1920s.  I believe they
were bag tags which were crimmped on the hem of the closed bag with the
proper word on the outside and the other folded into the tag and not
seen.  A guy who ran an old water powered grist mill when I was a kid had
the lead tags and a crew I was on about 20 years ago found the aluminum one
near a suspected grist mill site.

         Dan W.


At 05:40 PM 3/22/02, you wrote:
>Hello folks,
>
>I've uploaded a photo of two artifact types recently recovered from
>the site of a late nineteenth-/early twentieth-century "depot house"
>located along the Norfolk Southern Railroad in Warren County,
>Virginia, just east of Front Royal. The "depot house" was situated
>near a small, rural train station, and was essentially a dwelling
>occupied by the railroad section foreman and other railroad
>workers.
>
>Any information about the identity and/or function of these artifacts
>would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to email me privately if you
>prefer. Here's the link for the photo, and thanks in advance for any
>help:
>http://www.wm.edu/CAS/WMCAR/mystery.html
>
>Joe B. Jones