Approved by the Post Office Dept. 10-16-1953

Has Anyone seen such an object before? Any idea what it was used for?

 

Sorry, NOPE!!!!!

 

A tool they use to smash boxes?

 

Could it be a part for one of these? They were notorious for needing replacement parts until they were discontinued for more robust vehicles.

 

Looks like the end of a mailing tube or canister. Dimensions?

 

With the tear tab and hole, it looks like it was meant to be nailed to a post or something with a way to easily remove it. Whats the other side look like?

 

has the feel, of a canister seal....

 

Looks like a round tuitt.

 

Think its being marked as approved this way suggests it was meant for use in a non-PO setting in interactions with the Post Office Dept. Suggestions that it was part of a mail receptacle seem on the right track.

 

Pneumatic tube door?

 

I agree with your assessment.

 

Good guess, but Pneumatic tubes were no longer used for US Mail in 1953.

 

I think you're on the right track. It was made to tear off.

 

I don't have the item, just a photo, so I cant see the reverse side.

 

No facilities at all?
Hmm.

 

It's 4.5 inches in diameter.

 

Too small for one end of a mail receptacle. Could only be secured to something else using the 1 hole on the tab, which seems to me not very good for a seal + the side with the writing is meant to face in a direction where it can be read, putting those little nubs outward, which also seems to me inconsistent with using it as a seal, although doesn't rule it out as part of a closure. Clearly meant to hold up as long as wanted while still being readily removable when not, designed with an expectation that it will eventually be removed. Durable but temporary. Yet not reusable, held on in some way not easily undone. C'mon mechanics, what does that add up to? Why is there no emoji for puzzlement?

 

Those tabs are meant to fit/snap together and probably hold something between perhaps a fabric 'door'.
~
There is this which I use a lot>

 

This gave me an idea I realized is completely idiotic: that they were attached several at a time, one on top of the other, with the exposed one being torn off from time to time. But I can already argue myself out of it for several reasons, not to mention still having no clue as to use.