Possible Navy item, please help.

[qaela4]

This little circle is only 1/2", 3/4" with the "prongs". One side says: IN, X, U.S.N., too corroded to see anything else. The other side says: U.S.C, DBIT, MICH, the S was lost in a peroxide bath, corrosion underneath. I'm not doing anything else to harm it.

 

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[Tony in SC]

Looks like a security seal,meter, valve etc. Tony

 

[DCMatt]

It looks like a lead bale seal. I think it says NSU, not USN. Not a Navy item.

DCMatt

 

[qaela4]

It does say U.S.N, if you read it the other way it would be NSn, an upside down u would make a lower case n, also if you look at the S the top is narrow, the bottom is fatter. Not saying it means Navy but the order is definitely USN. It is a United States Customs seal, still need to figure out the back though...U.S.A. Customs Seal. Thanks for all the help.

 

[DCMatt]

OK. You have the item in hand and we only have the pics. I'll take your word.

I poked around the net a little and didn't find much on US Customs seals. There is a thread on Tnet from 2010 that makes a reference to an 1800's Detroit Michigan Customs seal, but no pictures of one.

There has been a US Customs House in Detroit for nearly 200 years.

DCMatt

 

[qaela4]

U.S.A. Customs Seal is a link to the seal on bagseals.org. I got the link from an old Tnet post thread. The back of the one in the link has the letters facing into the middle which supports the NSn order of letters. . This is a closer look, and from the side. You know that U(n) could be an O with part worn off and NSO could be the ending of a word hidden in the corrosion.