Rights Holder: Somerset County Council
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CLOTH SEAL
Unique ID: SOM-EDE6EB
Object type certainty: Certain
Workflow
status: Awaiting validation 
Post Medieval lead alloy cloth seal, of two disc type. One disc survives with the integral central rivet which previously held the two together. The edge is broken and torn at one point where the connecting strip has broken away along with the second, ring shaped, disc, the damage is the same patina as the rest of the fragment. The front has a raised design of the capital letters H and I (or IH) within a circular border of tiny pellets. Between the letters there is a four looped bow, above and below the letters the ends of the bow split and and in pellet flowers.
It is now 15.4mm by 13.9mm, 2.7mm thick and it weighs 2.92gms.
This was probably a privy or merchants mark indicating a cloth seal used by a weaver, dyer or searcher. The use of a privy mark suggests a broad late 16th to 18th century date.
Notes:
Two-disc seals are formed of a disc with a hole in the centre linked by a tab to a second solid disc with a projecting rivet on the inner face. The seal is bent in half with the tab running over the edge of the cloth and the rivet on one disc is pushed thorugh the cloth and second disc and stamped flat to hold the discs together and to the cloth.
Subsequent actions
Subsequent action after recording: Returned to finder
Chronology
Broad period: POST MEDIEVAL
Period from: POST MEDIEVAL
Period to: POST MEDIEVAL
Date from: Circa AD 1550
Date to: Circa AD 1800
Dimensions and weight
Quantity: 1
Length: 15.4 mm
Width: 13.9 mm
Thickness: 2.7 mm
Weight: 2.92 g
Discovery dates
Date(s) of discovery: Tuesday 1st October 2013 - Thursday 31st October 2013
Personal details
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Other reference numbers
Other reference: SCC receipt 16613
Materials and construction
Spatial metadata
Region: South West (European Region)County or Unitary authority: Somerset (County)
District: West Somerset (District)
To be known as: Carhampton
Spatial coordinates
Grid reference source: From finder
Unmasked grid reference accurate to a 100 metre square.
References cited
No references cited so far.
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Timeline of associated dates
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