Thanks for your response Free.
I have been collecting dog license tags for 35 years and I probably know less about the value of them than anyone associated with the hobby since the advent of eBay. I try to never price some one elses tags but I will be pleased to share with you some basic philosophy.
Almost any pre-1900 tag with the name of the issuing agency, (city, county, state, township), and in good condition is worth a minimum of $50. Mavericks (T.P., C.T.P., C.L.P., TAX PAID, DOG TAG or any similar lettering) is worth $10-35. Tags from small towns with low serial numbers are worth more than tags from large cities with larger serial numbers. There are only about 10 serious collectors of this type of material and the market is very active but very shallow. Most are state collectors and are interested primarily in their state only, there are only maybe 5 or 6 that are interested in pre-1900 tags from anywhere! When one or more of this group bumps heads the price can escalate quickly. You follow eBay and when you see a tag go above $200 you have at least two of the latter group competiting. One of these individuals has very deep pockets but a very limited knowledge of the hobby and has created a rather distorted view of the current market, if it's old it must be valuable!
I will be pleased to hear from you anytime. tagman...