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B.F. Goodrich & DAV Tags

Beginning in 1941, the Disabled American Veterans organization sent unsolicited mailings to owners of registered vehicles. Included in the mailing was a pair of key chain tags designed to look like exact miniatures of the owner’s state-issued vehicle license plates. The recipient was asked to send a donation of 25 cents (or more) to the DAV if he/she wanted to keep the tags. The contribution helped fund DAV programs for veterans. In return for the donation, the driver received “lost key insurance” from the DAV, the premise of which was that anyone finding keys with a DAV tag attached could drop the keys in any mailbox. The Post Office would send the keys to the DAV, which in turn would look up the license plate number appearing on the miniature tag and mail the keys and tag back to the rightful owner. The program ended after 1975. The B.F. Goodrich tire company had a similar program that began in 1939 and ended in 1942.

DAV tag trading card

1942 DAV mailer and envelope; DAV tags 1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1958, 1960; BF Goodrich tags 1939 #000, 1940 #X29, 1942 #47-149, 1942 #BOB; all courtesy Collection of Dr. Edward H. Miles @ EdMilesAuto.com.  1961 DAV mailer photos courtesy of Zachary Naughton; BF Goodrich tag MANUEL courtesy Dan Kiser. All others by Bill Johnston.

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