Featured Thoughts on removing personal inscriptions?

Hey guys I have a dilemma with this situation. I found an ID bracelet I really like from the 40s and it fits me perfectly. It is currently sitting in a heap of sterling scrap ready to be melted. However, I would like to wear it but it has personal information on the top, name, phone number, and some other writing. It's all mostly worn down but it is still there. I can't get myself to have it polished off because I feel it is part of the piece's history. What do you guy's think? Should I give it a new life or let it be to scrap? It also has a phone number on the underside but I would leave that as is for sure.

 

What's the difference between polishing off the 'history' so you can wear it or destroying the 'history' by melting it? If you would wear it I'd go for polishing it.

 

If you want to wear it, I'd definitely have someone just buff out all the personal info on it!!!! It belongs to you now, so do what you want!!!! Especially if otherwise you were just going to scrap it!!! Enjoy it!!!

 

Think of it as moving into a house and painting over the previous owner's color scheme. Some history is intended to be memorialized. Some is not.

 

If it were mine... I'd wear it and enjoy it.

Debora

 

Jewellery has been made over for as long as jewellery has been made. This is wearing away & item did not have enough sentimental value to anyone for them to hold onto it. Do with it as you will.

 

Very possible that the owner of a World War II-era I.D. bracelet is no longer with us.

Debora

 

Id find something to put on top of it,like an enamel plaque. That way you dont destroy the info and you can enjoy the bracelet.

 

I'd probably wear it as is; the old information is half the fun as far as I'm concerned.

 

If you were sandblasting the info off a 1940 grave stone...we'd have a serious talk....
but this......it's yours...make it yours...
OH...and lose the phone number ......it's not yours...and if u were ever to slip on the ice and bump your head....& a medic grabbed the bracelet and dialed that phone number...............AKWARD !!!!

 

Well it's not mine yet! Oh and the phone number is an old number with only a few digits missing. I think it was 8 or 7?

 

wipe it clean...and start yr own family heirloom !

 

I agree with Komo !!! ... Joy.

 

This I would scrap, polish out or reuse the chain part in a heartbeat.

This however I would never polish out as I love the history attached to it although I can only imagine who Thomas Cook was! . I’ve shown this before and I’m still mulling over how to use it best but it will stay as is.

 

Hi
I know it is a long shot but I love throwing things like this into the mix.
It could be Thomas Cook, son of Thomas Cook founder of Thos (Thomas) Cook & Son Ltd - The Airline company who had air tours in America in the 1920's *Food for thought*.

 

It could well be!.
Sadly Thomas Cook Holidays went into liquidation a few months ago. Luckily bought by Hayes Travel so many jobs saved.

 

It's Clio the Muse of History.