This Sterling Silver military dog tag pendant has been hand-crafted entirely in the United Kingdom. It is a beautiful accessory and will be a great gift for anyone.
This is an eye-catching accessory that can be worn with any outfit for any situation.
This Silver dog tag measures 35x20mm. Chain sold separately - recommended here
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 1861–1865, some soldiers pinned paper notes with their name 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 fun fairs, the details being pressed into the thin metal one letter at a time.
