USN US Navy Naval Submarine Plaque USS Seawolf SSN-575

Pricing & History

Sold for
Start Free Trial or Sign In to see what it's worth.
Sold Date
Source eBay

US Navy Naval Submarine Plaque USS Seawolf SSN-575 Heavy aluminum plaque. Aluminum portion of the plaque measures 8" wide by 9" long and weighs 4 Pounds. Mounted on a wooden crest. Very early made plaque. Probably in the 1950's Nice looking. Postage is $9.10 in the USA. NOTE: If you are looking for souvenirs from U.S. Naval War Ships that maybe you, your father, or, someone that you know served aboard, t really aren't very many named things that you can collect from US Naval Ships. On certain ships they had ship stores w you could buy cigarettes, razor, gum, candy, stamps and things like that. Some ship's stores sold a few items such as shoulder rocker patches with the ships name on them, ship patches yearly cruise books, and lighters with the ship's name and logo. Some ship's stores carried stationary with the ships logo or the name of the ship with a small picture of the ship. Not all naval ships had a ship stores, and some didn't have anything to sell. Back in the 50s and 60s you could get a book of matches with the ship's name on it. They have always been a great collectors item. But, that all stopped about 40 years ago. A lot of ship souvenirs were bought in foreign seaports, outside of a naval base or maybe along side a pier. Items, such as ashtrays, lighters, coffee cups and mugs, belt buckles, and pennants were easy to get, but most sailors never thought much of buying that sort of stuff. A lot of these items had the ships logo on them. Some of these items were ordered and bought by the ships company and sold on board the ship as souvenirs too. Ship Plaques and Ashtrays: Ships plaques were actually being made as early as 1951. Most of these plaques were made aboard a ships tender, in t foundrys. The ship plaque logo's usually matched their ship's jacket patches, some made as early as during WW2. A lot of those Ship patch logo's were designed by Walt Disney, Hanna-Barbera's, Warner Brothers and others, including, crew members from their ship. Early ones were mostly cartoon characters, more so for Submarines. Ship Plaques were never an official U.S. Navy items. They were not made from taxpayer's dollars until 1978 when they became an official ship's Coat of Arms type and were made with Symbolism's. From that point on, they were all basically made in the same way, an oval crest with a rope border around them. A lot of these plaques were made out of plastic and sold aboard ship to t crew members. The brass or bronze type, were usually given out as awards. These plaque types are usually made under contract from an out side source and is budgeted in the ship's operating funds. T is a huge difference from the old unofficial ship plaques, which were usually made out of scrap metal from aboard their ships. Aluminum usually came from bulkheads and pieces from the superstructure. The Brass plaques came from old valves, shell casings and from a mixture of other types of scrap metals. On a ship's tender, a pattern maker would make a mold usually out of wood so that the sand casting would be made in the ship's foundry w they would melt down the scrap metal to pour these plaques. Some plaques and ashtrays were also made in Shipyards or other places such as privet companies in foreign countries. These plaques were usually given out to Officer's who server aboard the ship. Some were given to Captains, Admirals and Dignitaries who visited their ship. Some times they were given to places that the ship visited such a Naval Bases, Naval Shipyards, EM Club, Officers Clubs, and off base naval and privet Facilities. Not all ships made or had plaques made. Some ships made hundreds of them while other ships made very few. Not all plaques were made out of the same materials either. Some were made out of materials such as plastic, plaster, resin, aluminum, brass, bronze and even white metal. A lot of them were painted to match t ship' logo's. T is no way of knowing how many plaques each ship made, or whom they gave them out to. I have been collecting them for 40 years no... read more

Items in the Price Guide are obtained exclusively from licensors and partners solely for our members’ research needs.

Flag item for content or copyright

If this item contains incorrect or inappropriate information please contact us here to flag it for review.

If you are the originator/copyright holder of this photo/item and would prefer it be excluded from our community, contact us here for removal.