_USNM 60288-M (S-K 46). Figure 149._
[Illustration: FIGURE 149]
This uncut, brass cap plate may have been a manufacturer's die strike
sent out as a sample, with others, so that a distant Militia
organization could select a pattern. The finished plate is known on a
bell-crown cap of the pattern of the 1820's, but its design indicates
that it probably should be dated after 1834 when the Regular artillery
first adopted the crossed-cannon device. The eagle is distinctly
similar to the one adopted by the Regulars in lieu of cap plates in
1821, and the modified sunburst background probably was taken from the
1833 dragoon device.