Perfect for pendants. One of our most popular chain styles, of the type used to attach dog tags, which are available separately. Available in a huge range of lengths; 16" - 40". Width of beads approx 2.5mm.
The earliest mention of an identification tag for soldiers comes in Polyaenus where the Spartans wrote their names on sticks tied to their left wrists. A type of dog tag ("signaculum"), was given to the Roman legionnaire at the moment of enrollment. The legionnaire "signaculum" was a lead disk with a leather string, worn around the neck, with the name of the recruit and the indication of the legion of which the recruit was part.
In more recent times, dog tags were provided to Chinese soldiers as early as the mid-19th century. During the Taiping revolt (1851–66), both the Imperialists (i.e., the Chinese Imperial Army regular servicemen) and those Taiping rebels wearing a uniform wore a wooden dog tag at the belt, bearing the soldier's name, age, birthplace, unit, and date of enlistment.
During the American Civil War from 1861 to 1865, some soldiers pinned paper notes with their names and home address to the backs of their coats. Other soldiers stencilled identification on their knapsacks or scratched it in the soft lead backing of their army belt buckle.
Manufacturers of identification badges recognized a market and began advertising in periodicals. On a volunteer basis, Prussian soldiers had decided to wear identification tags in the Austro-Prussian War of 1866. However, many rejected dog tags as a bad omen for their lives.
The British Army introduced identity discs in place of identity cards in 1907, in the form of aluminium discs, typically made at Regimental depots using machines similar to those common at funfairs, the details being pressed into the thin metal one letter at a time.
