I picked this up at a flea market recently just because I thought it had an interesting design. After some Googling I couldn't find anything on it so I thought I'd see if anyone had seen it before or had any info. It's about the size of a nickel and made of copper. There's no design on the reverse and it has glue on it from possibly being glued to a card? It looks to be plated in zinc or possibly silver but only on the obverse. You can see copper on the reverse and where there's no glue, by the patina it looks fairly old. Any ideas? Thanks for looking.
My guess is maybe they once gave it out to the Block Island ferry riders or maybe there was a restaurant or hotel called the Lighthouse. Sometimes you have to guess until you find something and sometimes you never find anything at all. Maybe someone from Rhode Island will happen on this post and help you out.
I would say that it used to be attached to a souvenir. The image on the piece is of the Southeast Light located on the Mohegan Bluffs of Block Island Rhode Island. The lighthouse was built in 1874 and is still in use today. Originally located 300 feet from the edge of the cliffs, by 1993 cliff erosion had it only 50 feet from the edge. It was then moved back another 360 feet. It was added to the National Registry of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in September of 1997. Today as well as being a active navigational beacon it is also a tourist site and museum. Here is a more recent picture of the lighthouse.
