Date Nails

Date nails were driven into railroad ties, bridge timbers, and other wooden structures for record keeping purposes. The dates on the nail head tells the date the timbers were put into place. Over 2,000 different date nails were used by North American railroads, and utility and other companies also used them, making the kinds of different nails from this continent available to collectors easily over 3,500. There is even a national club related to date nail collecting. All of our date nails come from either railroads or utility poles in the Plumas County area (Western Pacific, various logging railroads, etc.) and include many dates from the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties, and include even more-recent dates as well. Some have square heads and square shanks, while others have round heads and round shanks. Most are approx. 2.5" in length with .625" diam. heads, and .25" wide shanks. We have numbers that are impressed into the head as well as numbers that are raised on the nail head. A unique, historical way to commemorate someones birth date!

Stock is limited to what's on hand - so please call to check date availability before ordering.