Hundred year old dog Licenses and more...

Steve77

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Lakeview, Michigan
I was a volunteer at a kids camp this week. I had a little down time and did some detecting in the yard of an old house in the grounds.

I found a few wheat cents and thought for sure I would get a silver coin, but no joy. I did find the four old dog license on the edge of the yard near a small pine tree. All within a 4 foot span. I love old dog tags, so that was my favorite set of finds. The mother of pearl button was a surface find. The badge might be a crossing guard badge, but I'm not sure. An old lipstick, an old Ford valve stem cap, the obligatory harmonica reed, an old barrette and several other interesting finds. The cap gun was in the playground area near the center of camp.

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Nice photo spread there. Vintage dog license collecting has become vogue in recent years. Have seen some certain ones (specific cities and/or ages) can fetch good $$ on the collector market. .
 
Nice photo spread there. Vintage dog license collecting has become vogue in recent years. Have seen some certain ones (specific cities and/or ages) can fetch good $$ on the collector market. .

Thanks, I have noticed the same thing. I haven't sold any of my finds yet. I'm not opposed to it, but it wouldn't be easy for me.
 
Finding old tags like that beats finding 1900s silver in my mind. I havent found an old dog tag in Quite some time either
 
Dog tags are awesome finds


Bounty hunter - treasure hunter - cabelas special edition.
Best find to date - 15g platinum ring
Total clad 2018 - 45$
 
Gotta love those old dog tags.

I thought the first one was pretty good. When I found the second one, I was shocked! Then I began scouring the area and digging everything but iron. pulled the other 2 pretty quickly. I don't know if I missed any, but I did my best to get them all. I spent at least 20-25 minutes trying to find more. If I remember correctly, they all rang up between 16 and 18 on the NOX 600, just below a zinc penny.
 
+1 I agree, Way better! I have only ever found two of them and they're not that old (69,74) but they are among my favorite finds.
Congrats on some great digs!

Thanks! I also have ones from 1937, 1938 and 1939 all from different counties plus one from the 1970s and the 2000s. I am a dog lover, so these remind me of some of my long gone hunting dogs. As I type this I have 1 German Shorthaired Pointer sleeping under my feet and 2 more watching me waiting for me to put them to bed for the night. I hope the dogs who wore these tags were well loved, but back then most dogs lived outdoors and were handled more like livestock.
 
Great finds ! I find it interesting that they stamped the township over top of the 1918 tag! i wonder if it was an overlook when they made them, or if there was a company that made a bunch of Michigan Licenses and each township had to stamp their own?
 
Great finds ! I find it interesting that they stamped the township over top of the 1918 tag! i wonder if it was an overlook when they made them, or if there was a company that made a bunch of Michigan Licenses and each township had to stamp their own?

I wondered about that too. The 2 previous years were numbered 6 and 12. It could be that it wasn't worth it to order such small quantities of custom made tags for that county. Just a guess, but they sure are cool to me!
 
I bet if you dug down, you just might find some "DOG BONES" .. not of the Milk Bone type. I started finding dog tags on a permission hunt side by side and alerted the owner of the property. it was where the previous owner buried the family pets. I placed them back... as the current owners requested. they where from the 60's . you found 4 close together. mmmmm..... my old friends are in a line buried very deep in my backyard. some people just place old tags from the drawer of outdated vaccinations out where the old friends are put to rest.

old friends being dogs...... jimmy Hoffa aint here....;):D
 
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Low numbers and sequential years are valuable to those of us who collect! You should join us international society of animal license collectors ISALC on facebook
 
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