[cornelistromp]

interesting, if the marks are indeed identical, you're right and I'm really terribly wrong.
not because they are the same but because it is unlikely that 3 similar tags appear as close to each other at auctions.

Do you have pictures of the brass tags of the 2 lots of those auctions? :
The first lot sold October 2008 388 on a shirt not excavated mail with missing or poor quality parts.
The second solder October 2009 lot 421 not excavated on a small mail fragment.

One side note:
the brass rings from your other thread are certainly cast and chased, but this has been done in the 15th century.

There were in the 15th century 2 techniques for casting;
the so-called lost-wax technique by the direct method:
the ring was first carefully modeled in beeswax and then covered with clay and the clay was allowed to dry. The whole assembly was heated in a furnace which both fired the clay and burned out the wax (hence the term "lost wax"). The mold was then filled with molten metal. After cooling, the clay mold was broken away, revealing the original wax model as well as the sprues, now transformed into metal. The sprues were cut away and the brass characters are worked with tools ("chased") to the desired degree of finish. here the original model is destroyed and it is not possible to recieve 2 similar casts!

the second method is the lostwax indirect method, involve casting a second model in wax, the so-called intermodel, from the original model made by the sculptor. Once an intermodel has been made, it can be cast in metal exactly as described for direct casting. indirect casting was well known to the Greeks as early as the seventh century B.C. and riveved in the 15thC.
With this technique it was posible in the 15thC onwards to cast multiple similar casts.
like the Nuremberg tag.

but as I said very unlikely that so many suddenly appear

best,