{"product_id":"antique-thrasher-tin-tobacco-tag-w-mcc-diecut-plug-tag","title":"Antique Thrasher Tin Tobacco Tag 🏷️ W. \u0026 McC. Diecut Lithograph Victorian Tobacciana Advertising Tag","description":"\u003ch2\u003eWhat Was Thrasher Chewing Tobacco? 🏷️ A Tag That Rode on a Plug of Chewing Tobacco, Not a Lapel\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSize:\u003c\/strong\u003e 3\/4\" ~ Red lithographed finish showing its age, the metal darkened on the back.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv style=\"max-width:315px;margin:0 auto 20px;\"\u003e\u003cdiv style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:177.78%;height:0;overflow:hidden;\"\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YIi9PzqLMHc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer;autoplay;clipboard-write;encrypted-media;gyroscope;picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a die-cut tin tobacco tag in the shape of a cross, red ground, dark lettering: \u003cstrong\u003eTHRASHER\u003c\/strong\u003e runs across one arm, \u003cstrong\u003eW.\u0026amp;McC. TOB.CO.\u003c\/strong\u003e down the other. It's small, about three-quarters of an inch corner to corner — smaller than a silver dollar. The back is bare, oxidized metal with two small prongs, not a pin-back. These tags were pressed straight into the surface of a plug of chewing tobacco at the factory, one per plug, so a man could tell his brand from a competitor's by sight (or by feel, in a dim general store) before he ever unwrapped it. It's a plug tag, not a pin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🏭 W. \u0026amp; McC. — Very Likely Wilson \u0026amp; McCallay of Middletown, Ohio\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe initials \"W.\u0026amp;McC.\" very likely stand for Wilson \u0026amp; McCallay, a Middletown, Ohio plug tobacco firm — sibling tags from the same maker spell the full name out, \"THE WILSON \u0026amp; McCALLAY TOBACCO CO.,\" even though this one doesn't. In 1877, Daniel A. McCallay and his brother-in-law Robert Wilson bought the tobacco factory then being run by Paul J. Sorg, rated at 400,000 pounds a year, and raised its output within their first year. Through the 1880s, Middletown became the third-largest plug tobacco producing city in the country, and Wilson \u0026amp; McCallay was a major reason why. Their factory — and its brands — were bought out by the Continental Tobacco Company in 1901, which kept the popular ones in production. Middletown sits in Butler County, Ohio, and the Ohio History Connection holds a Wilson-McCallay Tobacco Company collection to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePaul J. Sorg, the man Wilson and McCallay bought the factory from, had started it as Sorg \u0026amp; Auer back in Cincinnati in 1864 before moving the operation to Middletown. Sorg didn't leave the tobacco business when he sold that factory — his own later company, P. J. Sorg Co., was itself bought by the American Tobacco Company in 1898.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e🌾 The Tag, the Brand, and How It Worked\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA tag like this one did a specific job: it was the only branding a plug of chewing tobacco carried once it left the wrapper behind. Here's why that mattered. After the Civil War ended in 1865, demand for tobacco took off, and tobacco makers large and small sprang up like weeds. Chew went out to the stores in wooden caddies with the maker's name on the crate, but once the lid came off, one company's plug looked pretty much like the next. A little tin tag pressed right into the plug was the fix: it kept the maker's name on the tobacco itself, all the way to the man doing the chewing. Manufacturers turned out dozens of distinct shapes and colors so a buyer at a crowded general-store counter could pick out his own brand at a glance, and collectors started saving the tags almost as soon as they were made — some were even redeemed for small premiums. Collectors who work this hobby say tags occasionally did double duty as small change in a coin-short country store, since some were printed with a stated value; nothing on this particular tag carries one. As for the brand name itself, the story among collectors is that \"Thrasher\" was a nod to the threshing machine — the great mechanical symbol of the harvest season, and about as fitting a name as a tobacco maker could pick for a product sold mostly to farmers and field hands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCollectors documenting this hobby run deep: Louis Storino's book \u003cem\u003eChewing Tobacco Tin Tags, 1870-1930\u003c\/em\u003e, first published by Schiffer in 1995, catalogs more than 6,000 of them, with illustrations for roughly a third.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003ch2\u003e📅 Dating This Tag\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe maker's own history sets the floor: Wilson \u0026amp; McCallay didn't exist under that name until they bought the factory in 1877-78, so this tag can't be older than that. Their run continued until the 1901 Continental Tobacco sale, which kept many of the brands going afterward — so this tag belongs to the late 1870s through the turn of the century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"relatedBlock\"\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003e🔎 More From The Vintage \u0026amp; Antique Gifts Archive\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1910s-special-drive-tin-tobacco-tag-treasures-gifts-home\"\u003eAntique Tobacco Tin Tag 🏷️ F.M. Bohannon's Special Drive — Winston-Salem, NC — 1900s–1920s Collector Piece\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1870s-1910s-harveys-natleaf-tin-tobacco-tag-treasures-gifts\"\u003eAntique Harveys Nat Leaf Tobacco Tin Tag 🚬 1870s 1910s Figural Leaf Shape Pin Back Advertising Collectible Tobacciana\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-1900s-1920s-bull-durham-tobacco-plug-tag-nc-treasures-gifts\"\u003eAntique 1900s–1920s Bull Durham Tobacco Paper Plug Tag American Tobacco Company Incorporated NOS Durham North Carolina Advertising Ephemera 🚬 American Icon RIP 1988\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":40769753776293,"sku":"VAG-7034827767973","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0597\/2718\/4037\/files\/il_fullxfull.3283227490_r0cg_44ed444b-17ff-4ad0-88ed-0bf9b6031553.jpg?v=1785354107","url":"https:\/\/vintageantiquesgifts.com\/products\/antique-thrasher-tin-tobacco-tag-w-mcc-diecut-plug-tag","provider":"Vintage and Antique Gifts","version":"1.0","type":"link"}