Occasionally vintage lovers come across something that has a Social Security number engraved on the back of it. Not professionally engraved, engraved in a way that looks like it was done with a needle. That’s because it was. It all started in 1963 with a program called Operation Identification.
The Monterey Park, CA police department started Operation ID to cut down on burglaries. People could borrow electric engraver pens from the police department and put their driver’s license aka Social Security number on high value items. If those items were stolen and found, people could recover their property. Putting an Operation ID sticker in your window gave burglars notice to skip your house. All in all, an ingenious plan.
Operation ID took off in the 1970s. The Justice Department estimated that 80% of US police departments were participating by 1974. Community groups and insurance agents got into the electric engraver loaning business as well. People marked things they worried might be stolen, like electronics for sure, as well as silver and silver plate serving pieces. Anything owners considered high value was marked.
We know you aren’t supposed to share your Social Security number now, but in the sweet innocent days of the 1980s and before, when TV remotes were cutting edge tech, identity theft was not the concern it is now. Driver’s license numbers were often Social Security numbers. My college ID number was my social. If you go through a stack of old bills from back then, it’s not unusual to find it printed. Oh how blissfully naive we were…
Today, we would never do that. But what do you do with things passed down through the family that are engraved?
While working with a woman who was downsizing, we discovered that every piece of her extensive family silver plate collection was marked with her father’s Social Security number. It worked, not a single piece had ever beens stolen. Of course, they had also never been burglarized. But knowing how Social Security numbers are treated now, it was a quandary figuring out if those pieces she no longer wanted could be sold.
Unable to find an answer online to if Social Security number privacy mattered when the number had not been in use for decades, I called the Social Security Administration. I explained the situation to a nice human, and she was absolutely clear that a Social Security number is never reused, that it is good forever and those pieces should not be sold under any circumstances. Her suggestion was metal recycling.
That was a few years ago. The question came up again when a I polished badly tarnished tray from a thrift and found a spidery etched number. Turning back to the internet, I still didn’t find an answer. But I did find out you can get a forebearer’s Social Security number through many databases, including a registry link at Ancestry.com. If that number should remain confidential in perpetuity, how come you can access it with a click if you know basic info about the person?
So what’s the answer? Safe is always best. The best remedy is to get an engraving pen or Dremel tool and make the Social Security number unreadable. The etching is almost always on the back, buzzing at it with a Dremel does not ruin it’s aesthetic. Of course, you could keep the pieces and use them, even if it’s in unexpected ways like as plant trays or vanity trays.
