Name/Title
Check Tags: 49Entry/Object ID
WTB09.134-138Description
Set of five (5) check tags stamped 49 (round).Use
Check tags were a system for tracking miners, by number, as they entered an underground mine: Tags were removed from a board by each worker as he entered the mine, and replaced on the board when he exited for the day. This let the company know how many miners, and which ones, were in the mine at any given time. They were also used for coordinating the weight and payment for each cart of coal that emerged while the miners were still working below: a miners hung their numbered brass tag on each coal car they filled, so that the checkweighman knew which individual miner to credit with that cart's load.
Also known as miner's checks, pit tags, pit checks, and time checks.Context
Although check tags themselves are not rare, it is unique to find several with the same number stamped on them. These are part of the WTB09 archaeological survey at Whites Trace Branch in the Blair Gap Area. Exact dig site, date, and personnel are unrecorded, but is assumed to be an independent survey done by B. Nida in 2009.Collection
Coal Mining ToolsOther Names and Numbers
Other Numbers
Number Type
Field DesignatorOther Number
301.1, 301.2, 301.3, 302.2, 303.1Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Blair Mountain Archaeology GroupRelated Places
Place
Location
Blair Area: Whites Trace BranchRegion
Blair Mountain Battlefield, Southeast, Blair AreaContinent
North AmericaRelated Events
Event
Battle of Blair Mountain (1921)Provenance
Provenance Detail
Archaeological FindNotes
2009
