Little Metal USPS Tags?

Hello all

I have been helping my boyfriend sell off some of his lock & key collection, and have come across some of these tags:



Does anyone know just what these tags are/were for? Did they come with PO Box keys? Were they for internal use only? Roughly what age are they?

Any info would be appreciated. THANKS!

It's likely a metal baggage tag. I know they were used on railways as Owney the dog "earned" them during his travels. I'll see if I can find a link.

Here's a photo of Owney.

With "USPS" on them, they are after 7/1/1971.

Yes, I'm sure the OP's photo shows a relatively modern tag. I suspect that any tag used today is plastic.

John Becker - I thought of that. And having established that earliest-date, and the lack of "baggage" since 1971, we need more info from people here!

Any ex-mailmen who can help?? (ooops... "mailpersons")

Opinion only: Usually large city delivery carriers would get at the end of putting their route up 'accountables' which needed to be signed for. In larger cities part of the accountable inventory (aside from certified & registered mail) was the set of route keys which included apartment house front door keys & the key to the inner apartment letter box or mail room key. If a vehicle key was included, (usually Parcel Post Routes) the key tag would also have the Postal vehicle number. The #1 could represent the route number with the larger digit number a vehicle number or inventory log number for what keys were on the ring.???

If I'm at all ambitious today, I'm going to watch for my postman and ask!

Hmmmm... vehicle key tag could be a possibility... I know we have more of these, I will post of I can put my hands on them easily.

Here is a brass Studebaker 'tool tag'. They were used to mark and identify various tools in the plants. They punched tool numbers in them (this one is blank) and then found a place to attach them to the tool in question. The USPS image looks very similar.
Don

Stude - my boyfriend's accumulation of keys and locks includes a lot of brass tags, but none say STUDEBAKER.

:-)

He did have one original Studebaker car key, with a nice logo on it. I kept that one... Railroads also used key tags, by the way.

Also an opinion: It could be an "equipment tag" which was attached to typewriters, desks, water heaters, and other "inventoried" items which although necessary were not part of the "mail" process except indirectly. It looks very similar to tags the Department of Defense used for similar items. It is also possible that item tags in that particular role were identical to tags attached to bags in which mail was shipped on trains or airplanes. I am just supposing, and I stand to be corrected.

Come to think of it, it supposedly came from and key and lock collection...and I have seen similar tags attached to Department of Defense padlocks placed on fence gates.

addendum: My postman neighbor says it might be a truck identification tag.

OK, just asked my boyfriend where he got these tags. All he said was:

Key tags from retired USPS trucks.

I guess I should have asked him to begin with!! Mystery solved...

Interesting find. The fact that the tags read "USPS" instead of "USPOD" probably dates them to post-1971 when the "USPS" came into existence.

So NOW the question is, since the number is too long to be a MA license plate, AND I don't think postal vehicles HAVE plates as such, what does the ## stand for??