www.925-1000.com

Hi all! I am so curious on what this trinket is. The item is approximately 3 inches in diameter, and has some depth to it. The bottom of the item says Rogers Smith & CO inside of a shield type emblem, and below that, outside of the emblem, is stamped 0 9. I have tried finding information on this to the point where I am exhausted of the search, and hope someone here can help me out. This is the information that I found:

Organised in 1857 by William Rogers Sr. and George W. Smith. The firm was merged in 1861 with Rogers Brothers Mfg Co under the presidence of William Rogers. The tools and the dies were bought in 1862 by Meriden Britannia Co transferring to Meriden the production of the 1847 Rogers Bros line under the direction of William Rogers. In 1863 Meriden Britannia Co bought the hollowware division. In 1865 the plating shop was transferred from New Haven to Meriden and merged with Meriden Britannia Co in 1866. Rogers, Smith & Co ceased to exist as a separate firm and was used as a trademark of Meriden Britannia Co when the International Silver Co was formed in 1898

- but none of the stamps shown on this website look like the one on the bottom of this item. It only says Rogers Smith & CO 0 9. Any help?

This version of the shield mark was neither listed by Rainwater nor the history of International Silver ("A Century of Silver"-1947). I would speculate it was long forgotten. Given most of the shields include Meriden CT, I would speculate that this is an earlier version after 1862 and before c.1877. The latter date is when the "business" was brought to Meriden. We can only surmise that the move of "the plating shop" for hollowares did not include some other plant and/or office facilities. Sounds like fabrication/stamping work was left in place with some if not all wares sent to Meriden for the electro-plating baths. There were other mark forms which included New Haven CT, so my suggestion called only be called pure conjecture at this time.
For the object, 3" is none too big and could fall into the size range for butter chip/pat or perhaps salt/seasoning/condiment uses. The actual depth would be telling.

If you're wondering about the useage of the shield, in America it was a Federal symbol which was transformed in the Civil War to be a "Unionist" calling card. In this example, the first image shows the Eagle with Shield at the top...the shield itself becoming the main emblem of the US Sanitary Commission (like a badge): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_ ... Commission

From then on it could be found as a gravestone element for the war casualties and used as a patritotic symbol by organizations and firms over a long period (Union Pacific Railroad linking itself to the stroke of Lincoln's pen, Union Oil Company, on and on). Given that Connecticut has always been "loyal", whether to a king or later a confederation of independent states working together (sometimes), it would probably not be odd that this emblem might be adopted in the 1860's or 1870's to express this sentiment. Of course, since International Silver was crossing borders, they probably decided to bury such emblems as a convenience in changing times.