Bale seal?

[Superblitz]

I found this today, about 8 inches down, and I'm hoping someone here knows something about it. After some research, I think it is a bale seal. It is about the size of a penny, three times as thick, and made of lead. On one side it appears to have two letters, my best guess is M and W, with an ampersand between. On the other side, it looks like an S underlined over the number 897. The site is in MD, on a homestead in consistent use since the late 1700s as far as I have traced it.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[CASPER-2]

looks similar to bale seals ive found

 

[Old Dude]

Thank you for posts of the photos. I would never have known what they were. Now I can file these away in my memory in case I find one! What type bales would these have been from? Cotton, tobacco? Thank you for sharing. People forget it helps everyone when pics are included.

Sent from my iPad using TreasureNet

 

[Superblitz]

Thanks! I do live right on the train tracks though, and someone suggested a boxcar seal. The train that used to come through here was Norfolk and Western, so it could make sense, but the back stamp looks like the ones on cloth seals, so I'm stumped.