This is a really nice item. I have this item up on ebay right now with a little over five days left on it so I'm just going to paste a lot of the basic stuff straight from the listing there. This is a pewter plate made to commemorate the bicentennial of the Corps of Engineers. It was made and is dated on the front 1975. On the back is a description of the job designation at the beginnings of the corps. On the front of the plate, the text reads "U.S. Army, the bicentennial of the Corps of Engineers, 1775 1975; with the words "200th" and "Essayons" in the very most center of the plate. All words are in capital letters. In the very middle of the front of the plate is an old type building, surrounded by a leaf motif with three stars above the "200th". Around the edge of the front of the plate are old military type scenes. They seem to show the progression through the years of the Corps of Engineers.
On the back of the plate, along the top half of the wide rim is the following text, all capitalized:
"That there be one chief engineer at the grand army, and that his pay be sixty dollars per month. That two assistants be employed under him; that the pay of each of them be twenty dollars per month. That there be a chief engineer for the army, in a separate department, and two assistants under him; that the pay of the chief engineer be sixty dollars per month, and the pay of the assistants each, twenty dollars per month."
Made out of pure pewter, this plate is in great shape and of very high quality. There are four distinct maker's marks. There is a "c" in a circle, another encircled group of letters- the middle letter is a "w", and the letters to the sides are a little harder to make out. The first symbol in the line looks like a figure similar to a 'lady of liberty'. Above these symbols are the words "'milton'?-not completely sure on the first word and then " Columbia, Pa U S A". The plate is very clean and is almost like new. The plate measures 12" in diameter. The raised rim of the plate with the military scenes on it measures 2". Thanks for any assistance and interest.
