Antique Period Dog Tag. (03/20/2011)

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Antique Period Dog Tag.

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Antique Period Dog Tag.

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Sold Date: 03/20/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Transportation and Vehicles

Article description: A most unusual find from the marine conglomerate of a brass dog tax tag that originates from the then Prussian town of Bromberg. it is dated 1899 and denoted as being number 472. The other marks are H ST M which are short for Hunde Steuer Marke ( Dog Tax Token). It is thus obvious that a Prussian officer thought to bring his pet dog with him when he was transfered to the then colony of German South West Africa. The officer may have made it home again but the dog probably stayed. A fascinating piece of Imperial German Pooch history and perhaps a one of a kind token. A lot more historical research could bring further information to light. Lovely item!

Approximate dimensions: 33 x 28 mm Total weight: 2 grams

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A little history and background to the articles

In the past:

Swakopmund was founded in 1892, becoming the main port for imports and exports for the whole territory of German South West Africa, an area of some 824292 square kilometers. Walvis Bay a British possession at the time is located some 30 kilometers south.

Before the breakwater was built in 1898, later known as the Mole, all offloading was done with special boats that could only be handled by Kroo men from Liberia. At that time, up to 600 Kroo tribesmen were employed by the Woermann Shipping Line. During 1894 only four ships offloaded, however due to increased business developments and the advent of the Herero Uprising, a need for increased shipping and personnel to quell the rebellion lead to further development and increased Governmental offices. By this time as many as 14 ships could be found anchored in the roadstead waiting to be off loaded,

To accommodate and facilitate the increased shipping traffic, work was started in 1905 on a wooden jetty, but in the long run this was inadequate. In 1914 construction of an iron jetty was therefore commenced, the remains of which can still be seen today.

In a dynamic community, many items will end up in the trash, including wearing apparel, kitchen utensils, machine shop junk alongside a huge variety of other items of all descriptions.

Small change in the colony was problematic, and as such developments had set the scene for the introduction of a variety of tokens and other jettons, either officially by Government or in a private capacity by a variety of business concerns. No longer valid or in use today all of these previously discarded items that ended up in the junk pile over 100 years ago have today become a distinctive and creatively interesting collecting field.

To the present:

The Swakopmund dump was started during German colonial times approximately in 1900 a little out of town and on the beach in close proximity to the Atlantic ocean. It appears to have been abandoned around 1920.

With the passage of time it transformed into a more or less solid rock like mound. This occurred as a result of differing metals and other organic substances being in close association with one another in the presence of a conductive liquid. (called an electrolyte, in this case sea water.) Over time a slow reactive chemical process known as electrolytic corrosion began. The end result is a hard mass known as a conglomerate concretion that includes all the foreign objects deposited by man, together with an equal amount of naturally occurring local materials such as sea shells, pebbles and sand.

During 2008 artisanal miners began working the mounds for their content of discarded ferrous and cupreous metals which they were able to sell to scrap merchants, thereby earning a living. In the course of this they found so...