What is it?

[RvaDiggn]

I was relic hunting an area where there were Civil War troops, a battle and a train station called Fair Oaks Station, found quite a few CW artifacts there but I have no idea what this could be. I'm not sure if it was attached to something the soldiers would have used or something from the train station.

 

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[fish4walleye]

First thought(probably wrong) old travel trunks used to have leather strap hinge with decoration plate to cover strap ends,, just throwing something out there

 

[creskol]

May be a wood stove medallion?

 

[Tony in SC]

May be a wood stove medallion?

That's what I was thinking, Stove/heater tag. Tony

 

[NOLA_Ken]

First thought I had was a medallion off of an old tractor grill.

 

[njguy]

A close look at the front shows two small screw heads, this seems to indicate a removable, perhaps interchangeable, face plate lay within the diagonal bars. To me that means mass production. Maybe military.

The heavy duty hex nuts and the mounting bracket on the rear, indicate the plate was on something quite securely for a reason. Perhaps because it was mobile? Is that bracket broken off on its left and right sides from something larger or is that the actual bracket size? I'm not sure when hex nuts went into mass production, but I think it was post CW, or near the end of CW? And those nuts look very sharply machined.

Perhaps it is a boxcar shield?
Similar, though smaller then the ones used on the Merci boxcars sent to the USA from France back in 1949. I think every state got one? Many are in a poor state with missing shields. Plus replicas were made. Even toymakers recreated the train in railroad sets.

 

[AUDIOSWAMP]

LOOKS LIKE THE PINKERTON SECURITY BADGE ? MAYBE IT WAS ON A STRONG BOX OR SOMETHING THAT BELONGED TO THEM??

 

[CRUSADER]

May be a wood stove medallion?

That's what I was thinking, Stove/heater tag. Tony

that was my best guess as well

 

[High Plains Digger]

njguy: Where is that box car located? It looks almost exactly ( based on my bad memory) as the one at the VFW in Cheyenne Wyo.