USS Neosho AO-143 Oiler Brass US Navy Ship Plaque. This plaque is Heavy Brass. The total plaque measurements is 6.5" in diameter.  Old and in good condition. 

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, there really aren’t very many named things that you can collect from US Naval Ships. On certain ships they had ship stores where 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 there 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 there 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. There 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 where 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 there ship’ logo’s. There 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 now. I have seen many from a single ship, and never a one from a lot of ships. In the 40 years that I’ve been collecting plaques, I have only found maybe one plaque for a curtain ship and never seen another one ever again from that ship. So, some are very rare and hard to find. Sometimes their are people out there that I call ”Back Yard Bob’s,” that take rare naval plaques and make many copies out of them using materials such as Polycast with a brass sprayed on finish, Resin, plastic, plaster and paints them to make you think that you are buying an originals, but your not!  Sometimes someone has to pay a lot of money for an original ships plaque, and it ends up just being a copy. They take a rare plaque, cast it in resin, mount it on a piece of wood and you get your self a copy and who knows the difference?  I have won a few of these plaques myself on Ebay. All the plaques and ashtrays that I sell on Ebay are all guaranteed to be an original once issued from that ship, naval shipyards, or naval groups and institutions. It takes a lot of hard work to grind down the rough sand casting material left behind from casting a brass plaque in order to polish up the plaque. An old trick to cut down on the time it takes to polish up a nice brass plaque, is to just polish the high lighted areas with a cutting compound on a buffing wheel, and then to paint all the rough background areas in black. And if the plaques are casted from plastic, resin, or plaster, a fine piece of sand paper works well for that. Any Questions, please ask before bidding. Thank you.

                                                                                                                                            For Any US Naval Warship or Vessel, go to this link.

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/sh-usn/usn-name.htm