What is this lead thingy?

Bonesquat

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I found this lead thingy today and this aluminum tag that reads:

POSTAGE GUARANTEED
FINDER DEPOSIT ANY MAILBOX
DISABLED AMERICAN
VETERANS
CINCINATTI OHIO 45206

Thanks.
 

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Wow cool! Thanks for the ID everyone. I think it's pretty neat.

I put a flashlight to the side of it and I think mine has a 4 on it. Definitely a triangle or something. Must be a worn out 4.
 
that first item is a tag for a key ring.
up here in Canada, the War Amps Society issues them free of charge (but donations welcomed). if a person finds a set of lost keys with that tag on them, all you have to do is simply drop them in a mailbox and they can trace the number on the reverse side and get the keys back to their owner.
it should be aluminum and the number/label on the back was plastic or plastic coated paper.
i'm not sure if they're commonly used anymore, but they've been around for as long as i can remember.

Pete

edit: your tag is obviously American, but the Canadian equivalent is the War Amps (amputees) and a large portion of donations to them were to help disabled vets and children disabled from war related activities.
 
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Those were big with the gas station chains in the 60 and 70s when they actually needed to give true service.

Most had those keychains with their brands on them.. postage guaranteed.. you just had to keep you address updated to get them AND their mail marketing propaganda. :grin:
 
Thanks pete! I was wondering what it was used for. Any idea when they started that whole trend?

hey, no problem. :D

a really quick google search <http://www.waramps.ca/keytags/home.html> says this service was started in 1946, so just shortly after the end of WW2.
that site says it's a uniquely Canadian service, but your tag appears to be American, so there must be something similar down your way.

a quick read on that site says how this service has helped to return over 1 million sets of keys and has also helped to keep amputees and other disabled people employed, no doubt a portion of those folks were initially disabled veterans of WW2.

now if your tag had still been attached to a set of keys and it still had the number on the back, there's still a chance you would have still been able to return the keys to the owner. :yes:
keys or not, it's still a cool find! i'll bet that aluminum gave a nice tone on your detector. ;)

Pete
 
Yeah, you used to find a TON of those War-Amp Tags up here... Found 4 in one day at a ball park not far from the house, but now you can go a long time an not find any at all... When you find them attached to keys, you just dump the whole set of keys into the Mailbox with the tag attached and they make their way back to the owner of the tag and no postage or envelope necessary! Sadly, I doubt that this will last much longer due to the associated costs of returning the keys, etc...
 
Wow I can't believe they still would return these things. I got a solid bottle cap reading on it. Nice high tone on the E-trac. A 12-40 or 12-41. Thought it'd be a wheatie perhaps. Too bad there's no ID number on it.
 
veteran tag

Does anyone know how to trace these tags... how to find out who may have owned it, etc? I'm not sure how to go about doing it but I found one of these today.
 
Those aluminum Veteran key tags came with a paper insert that looked like a license plate; presumably the license plate of the Vet's vehicle. I found one last year with a vintage yellow Wisconsin plate in it. It had a year on it too; sixty-something. I tried scrubbing it clean under running water. That's how I found out it was made of paper. :no:
 
Cadillac used to offer the key return service as I recall. Mom had one on her keychain.
 
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