What is this?

[john845]

Hello everyone it's been a while since I posted. I found this last weekend. I took a ride to visit my father he lives about a hour away from Cooperstown Ny. I did some detecting up there and I found this near an old Mill ruin it was between the house and the mill. It looks like it was silver plated. There's still a little left on one side. The dimple in the center has a hole in it right through to the other side. It kind of reminds me of a spur but I doubt that it is one. Any ideas are wecome!

 

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[Breezie]

Hey John,
Evidently it is some type of gear since it has teeth and a center hole.


Breezie

 

[gunsil]

Breezie is spot on, looks like a clock gear to me, one with a bunch of teeth broken or corroded off.

 

[john845]

That was another thought of mine I just thought the silver plating was odd for a gear.

 

[Wildcat1750]

Could it have been part of a clock mechanism?

 

[fmerg]

It is one level of an early "mainspring" Fusee for a pocket watch
The fusee and mainspring barrel sit side-by-side within the watch movement. The fusee acts as a power-regulator between the simple mainspring barrel and the gear-train of the watch. The mainspring barrel is connected to the fusee barrel with a tiny chain, which looks almost like a microscopic bicycle chain. That's why fusee watches are sometimes referred to as "chain-driven" watches.
your find is missing the conical piece that allows the chain to "switch gears"

 

[DCMatt]

fmerg - Great ID!

The breadth of knowledge on this forum always amazes me!