Please help ID this pin

[AlabamaDigger]

Hello all first post here and found a pin I that I need help IDing. First off I live in Alabama and found this pin at a old home site that burnt down in the 40s. Also about 300 yards back in the woods theres a really old family grave yard that has 8 or so graves in it dating before the 1800s. 4 have dates, One is 1801 to 1894 and has a mason sign on it. 4 of the graves are just flat rocks with unreadable names and dates. Along time ago the graves have been opened and everything taken out. Anyways the pin has ALA stamped in it right below the eagle and on the back side it has two small tac marks where the pins were attached. The pin is only 1 or 1 1/2 inch tall.

 

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[jmaz]

Looks like something from the war

 

[jmaz]

Maybe the civil war

 

[AlabamaDigger]

I'm thinking the same thing. I have found one eagle button from the civil war but not at the same location of this pin.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

lAlabama Digger wrote:
> on the back side it has two small tac marks where the pins were attached.

First, welcome to TreasureNet, and especially to the What-Is-It forum.

Sorry, definitely not civil war era. Early-to-mid-20th-Century, and probably Alabama State Guard. Sidenote: strangely, the L is thicker-bodied and taller than the other letters.

You mentioned seeing "tac marks where the pins were attached." Do you mean two solder-spots, or brazing-spots, for attaching each end of a pin-clasp (like in the diagram below)? Or do you mean the stubs of two small broken-off vertical pins, like in the photo below?

 

[AlabamaDigger]

Its really hard to tell on the back side but it looks to me more like the top first pic. Plus it has the old style head on the eagle. When did they change the style one the head? I have found a picture that looks just like it but the head is turned the other was and doesnt have the ALA on it. Also the head is alil differnt. I'll post that pic. in a sec gotta find it again. I have also found some wheats dating 1938 to 1944 about 10 feet away.




This is a service pin for the navy I think?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

By "old-style" eagle head, I assume you mean having a crest at the back of the head. That actually isn't a very reliable characteristic for time-dating, because its the manufacturer's choice. It was still in use on 20th-Century buttons, for example.

I think the attachment-pin-stubs are much more reliable for time-dating your eagle-on-a-shield pin. Clutch-pins for attachment became standard in the latter half of World War Two ...and are still the primary form in use today.

 

[AlabamaDigger]

I'll see if I can get a better picture of the back for you to look at and see what you think ok?

 

[AlabamaDigger]

Heres some better pictures. And size of pin.