Collecting Naval Hat Tallies

An interesting bit of nautical collecting is something called a navy hat tally.  They were ribbons with ship’s names and were worn on both the cloth wheel cap and the tarred straw hats starting around the time of the Civil War, in the U.S. navy.  Some countries also used them on tropical pith helmets.  Wealthy owners of private yachts also had their sailors wear hat tallies with the name of the yacht on the ribbon.  Prestigious steamship lines had their sailors wear hat tallies, often with the steamship line flag embroidered on the ribbon as well.

Circa. 1900 British Bosun's Mate with Hat Tally.

The U.S. Navy 1897 regulation prescribed tallies to be made from navy colored silk ribbon and were one and a half inch wide with the letters of the name of the ship in half inch block letters woven from fine gilt thread or stenciled with gold paint.  The lengths of unissued or unused hat tallies varied from 33 inches to 37 inches.  As a side note, the large diameter cracker jack hat had that had been standard from just after the Civil War was reduced in size by regulation after WWI.

Hat tallies were issued as extremely long ribbons, sometimes as long as 38 inches.  When the hat tally was tied to the hat, a bow was made and the extra long tails were often cut short and neat.  Unissued hat tallies will generally be quite long and tied, issued hat tallies when dismounted from the hat will be considerably shorter.  Retired navy men saved their hat tallies and sometimes cut them down to the legend only for display so expect to see a variety of lengths.

Most major navies had hat tallies and it’s not uncommon to find South American and Italian hat tallies on the market because they are still being used today or were made obsolete only recently.  Hat tallies were not just named ships, but naval duty stations and reserve status might be indicated on a hat tally.

American hat tallies with ship names ended in August 1941, just before America’s entrance into WWII, with the bombing of Pearl Harbor due to security reasons.  Wartime and later hat tallies just said U.S. Navy.  The cracker jack hat went away by the mid 1960s, being a piece of basic issue to new recruits, but seldom worn.

Hat Tally USS Lancaster  1858-1915

Hat Tally USS Machias 1891 to 1919

Be careful of buying hat tallies over the internet.  There are increasing numbers of reproductions being sold as original.  The most common are U.S. Navy hat tallies with the name of famous ships from the civil war to WWII as well as German WWII hat tallies of battleships.

The most common original hat tally is the standard “U.S. Navy” which is worth from $5 to $10 depending on condition.  The post-WWI small navy hat with a common “U.S. Navy” legend sells from $25 to $50, although there are considerable variables in condition.  A named hat from a good ship will bring more and a hat with a pre-war named ship hat tally can be expensive, just be careful of reproductions.

Hat Tally USS Mohican 1883-1921

Hat Tally USS Topeka 1898-1929

This is an rare example of a cross over hat tally. The Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse (Kaiser Wilhelm der Große) started out as a civilian luxury liner and was converted into a light cruiser during WWI and was sunk in the battle of Rio de Oro in 1914.

Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse  Luxary Liner-Commerce raider

Norddeutsche Lloyd (NDL) (North German Lloyd) was a Germanshipping company 

Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse   1897-1914 

Norddeutsche Lloyd (NDL) (North German Lloyd) Logo

Please note that all actual hat tallies featured in the above images are original and from our collection and are available for purchase. Prices upon request.

For further information go to the following web sites:

Early Hat Tallies
Canadian Hat Tallies  
Sailor Caps
Navy Uniform History
Soar Valley Weaving, Home of Cap Tallies

Two Sailors from the USS St. Louis Note Hat Tally on Right.

A Few New Photos and a Frederic Remington Bronze at South Coast Antiques & Gallery

Here are a few new images of the shop that I took today.

This case has a variety of things  such as 19th century spelter figurines, a 1920's red flapper's box camera, 1870 top hat, Pre WWII boxed childs cutlery set, Pair of Victorian ivory paintings, Bristol ware glass, Santa Clara blackware pottery, Large sterling silver oval vanity mirror, assorted antique ivory jewelry and ornaments, including an African chiefs horn.  Also included are Japanese geisha doll, squash blossom necklace, a Harrach glass and gilt vase. Tiffany Favrile footed glass salt dip, Sterling Coach chain and lock necklace, 1860's gold and garnet necklace.  The bottom shelf has vintage Shearwater figurines which a very rare cabin shaped cookie jar, Fred Press original plaster art deco bust, A matched set of three Sea foam blue victorian opaline ware containers, Black Victorian mourning fan, Large niello sterling Siam belt, and a small grouping of early William Spratling jewelry, plus many other items.

In this case we have a very rare circa 1870's Ames sword company sign, a pre WWI Bavarian reservist regimental stein, early 1800s Ottoman Empire inlaid blunderbuss, a bone mounted late Mejii dagger, a Malaysian watered steel kris, African trade spear point, Spanish bone handed bull fighting sword, a shamshir, Spanish 1820s uprising briquet sword, very early Dragoon sword, 1840s single shot percussion pistol, a WWII  Japanese NCO's sword, a WWII Japanese officer's sword, rare pre-kerosene smugglers black out lantern, Austrian pioneers sword from the 1820s, 1840s newspapers masthead American eagle printers block, 19th century Persian tile, an image of an Italian Alpine trooper circa 1910, small bugle, early 1900s handcuffs, African dagger, German guild processional axe, WWII aircraft gun camera, a Spanish shipwreck coin and a very large Remington bronze mountain man sculpture.

This handy little corner cabinet has on top an Indian painted water bottle with folkloric scenes, and inside the case is a large Fenton art glass vase by Robert Barber, a white bronze Coptic cross with hand painted inset panels, A Victorian red on crystal basket, A Rosie O'Neal Kewpie cup, A scarce paper thin milk glass hand enamel painted beer stein circa 1820's, A hand painted wooden Russian peasant mug by Michael W, Moses, and a early 1900's creamware Mettlach, German stein, and on the bottom shelf is a mid 1950's Murano glass bowl. Next to the case is a French provincial style table from the turn of the century. On this table is a medium sized Persian samovar, a Japanesque American made caster set by Reed & Barton, An Egyptian motif oil lamp, a moss rose Japanese made 1950's coffee table set, a Japanese made lustreware bowl, and a set of circa 1910 Royal Doulton plate and bowls. Underneath the table is a 1930's fan and a coal fueled iron, a common flat iron, a tall reproduction fireplace trivet, and a vintage cooper tea pot. off to the side we see a early 1900's ships wheel and WWII liberty ship binnacle with compass and a matching set of craftsman leaded glass door panels circa 1915.  Well these are a few of the things that we currently have in stock at South Coast Antiques & Gallery!

Now for the big news. We have acquired a wonderful extremely fine casting of a Frederic Remington bronze. This wok of art is 28½ inches tall and is called the "Mountain Man".  This bronze sculpture is one of the finest quality Remington bronzes that we have ever seen! The detail is amazing. Every detail on this piece is just incredible. Everything from the liver sulfur patina to the exquisite mirror polished French slate base shows this to be a truly superior work of art.

"Mountain Man" by Frederic Remington

       

South Coast Antiques & Gallery visits The GI Museum in Gautier, MS

 

Doug Mansfield
Owner & Operator of
The GI Museum

Today we went to the The GI Museum located at 5796 Ritcher Road in Gautier, MS. We were very fortunate to have Doug Mansfield the owner & operator to give us a personal tour of the museum today. This wonderful Museum aims to preserve memorabilia representing the generations of Americans who have served our country so that we can remain free today.  The museum does this through many thoughtfully and carefully arranged displays and by means of a number of educational programs. This collection has items from WWI all the way through the current era. The museums goal is to make sure we never forget the sacrifices that the men and woman of our country have made as civilians and military during war time service.

Very rare combat photographer's field kit WWII era

This is not simply an arry of militay equipment, but a exhibition of the everyday things that were used by the the average military member and supporting civilians. They feature a lot of items that were extremely common when new 70 years ago, but have become quite rare over the years. I was thrilled to see a package of Wings brand cigarettes! We saw a WWII era Russian Maxim machine gun. They have some rare Flying Tigers memorabilia. And to top it all off, Mister Mansfield had so much great information to share. It was a truly enjoyable and educational experiance! I know that The GI Museum will be a repeat destination for us in the future!

Field radio set up with military bugle and issued phonograph WWII era

The GI Museum also sponsars the WKFK TV show Local Heroes. On this locally televised show Doug Mansfield interviews military veterns about their military experiances
 

For further information check out The GI Museum

Russian Maxim Gun WWII era

Various WWII era Marine personal affects

Assorted WWII era Men's and Women's Uniforms

WWII civilian war effort, related items

Flying Tigers memorabilia

WWI era uniforms

Every day personnal items that would have been

used by WWII military personnel

Collecting Cut Out Coins and Cut Out Coin Jewelry

 Lately we have been picking up a type of jewelry that doesn’t turn up often.  It is coins that have had the background meticulously cut out leaving the highlights and words intact.  Older version of this type of work generally have a fancy decorative bezel soldered to the coin and a jewelry quality pin attached to the back.  When you wear the coin jewelry, your clothing shows through from the back, enhancing the jewelry.  Cut out coins began to be popular in the late 1890s as charms and sweetheart pins.

A Fine Example of Cut Out Coin Jewelry. A Pin Crafted from a 1862 Swiss Silver Coin

Fine saw blades for cut out work on sheet silver had been around for centuries, but generally unavailable outside of craftsman and silversmith shops.  They don’t appear for use by casual or itinerant craftsmen until the early 1900s.  The invention of an inexpensive, super fine saw blade made it possible for craftsmen to risk breaking a blade to make an inexpensive piece of coin jewelry

These cut out coins are also collected by some coin collectors of exonuma, along with sweetheart tokens, which are in the same category.  Modern cut outs can be enhanced with gold plated accents  

Cutting coins is difficult due to the thickness of the material, compared to cutting thinner sheet silver and the additional harness of the alloyed silver also increases the chance of the very fine blade of the saw snapping.  Coin fineness can vary from 90% pure down to 72% pure.  The more alloy, the harder the material and the more difficult it is to cut as you increase thickness. 

An experienced eye and a skilled craftsman is required for this difficult work.  The craftsman must plan where the cuts will be made and plan out where relief holes will be drilled for each set of cuts.  He must decide not only where to cut, but how the overall removal will enhance the beauty of the final work.

The holes drilled must be only slightly larger than the saw blade because the blade must be threaded through the hole before being reattached to the saw frame.  The blade is also about the size of a thick hair and very prone to snapping if even the slightest twisting or uneven pressure is made.  One source indicated that 20 to 40 holes must be drilled and the same number of blade inserts and connections to the frame are made.  The most intricate pieces may take over 100 to 150 cuts to complete the work.  Each piece takes hours to finish and the most complex might take up to 15 hours from start to finish, in cases where full legends and date are cut out..  The coin is then polished. Then any soldering for a pin or bail done and a final clean up and polish to complete the work. 

We are more familiar with pieces cut out in the late 1960s and early 1970s from craft fairs and made sometimes by itinerant hippies.  Although they produced some good work, they were not always masterpieces of advanced craftsmen.  In fact, they often didn’t have an aded pin or bail soldered on and a simple cord was used for wear.

Look for pieces with intricate cut outs. For example, there are a lot of letters and numbers are cut out, and soldered on decorative border and a good quality pin or bail for wearing.  It’s not always about age and some new pieces are so intricate and involved, they are more expensive than a vintage item.  Newer pieces may also have gold plating in areas for accents.  Watch out for cast copies of good pieces masquerading as originals.  You will see a line around the rim that shows it was cast and not a coin as well as a blurriness deep within the cutouts around the letters.  Generally these inexpensive copies are made of pewter or lead.

Remember, attention to detail will save you a lot of money and disappointment no matter what you collect.  Buy what you like and don’t worry too much about buying for investment.  The great thing about cut out coins is that you can wear them and they make a great fashion statement about your collecting.

EXAMPLES Available at South Coast Antiques & Gallery 

U.S. silver dollar die cut by machine note lack of soldering (see comments section)

Cut Out 1920's U.S. Morgan Silver Dollar

1920's U.S. Morgan Silver Dollar
Fashioned into a Necklace with Sterling Beads and Light Blue Dragon Skin Agate.

A Dutch sweetheart pin, probably made for American military members in WWII, circa late war.

Crafted From Dutch Silver Coins

Guatemala coin bracelet made up of alternate cut out coins from the late 1800's.  

This work probably dates in the 1920's or 30's.

Tiny Silver 1 Real Coins From Guatemala

UPDATE 1 May 1014:  Buyers beware of laser cut coins being sold as hand cut coins in the past few years.  The coin is scanned and then a computer guided laser cuts out designated areas.  They are pretty and they started life as a coin, but don't fit the definition of hand-made by any means.  Also read the comment section below about a discussion about die-cut coins.  Also note our previous photos below of a base metal cast pseudo coin.  The lead ones are soft and easily bent.  The fact that they are silver plated can lead the unwary to believe they are coin silver.

Fake Bahamas cut out coin made of cast lead.of no actual value.