USN Pattern 1933 Flat Hat Named

[Politefaun]

Hello all, today I went to an estate sale near me and found what I believe is a WW2 era flat hat, though its been hard to find information on dating the contract number. Overall the wool is in good condition except for a small spot on the top which has something stuck to it, and the leather band has some cracking and creases. There is a naval clothing tag underneath the leather band which has the name, service number, and contract number. I have not been able to find anything on the previous owner so far but I'm sure something will pop up eventually. I've always wanted to get one of these to complete a dress uniform I got a few years ago. Thank you for reading and for any information!

Name: Finnegan R. T.
Service no. 491-92-18
Contract No. DA-30-352-TAP-1933
Size 6 3/4

[Rescue190]

Nice hat! Hope you find additional information.
John

[reneblacky]

Nice cap! but is post WW2. Here's a link to give an idea on how to date a service number.

Service number (United States Navy) - Wikipedia

[Rescue190]

Great catch Rene' I did not give the number a 2nd look. Good link as well. I learned me something today! All hope is not lost.
John

[MAP]

I found one of these in my late mothers house when we were cleaning it out.

Nearly exactly the same but with a slightly different tag. Leather is to hard to photograph but contract number isQM (CTM) 10251-C-61. Leading me to believe is is a 1961 dated cap. But could be wrong

[Politefaun]

Thank you for the link Rene! I think your right that it is post WW2 from the late 40's early 50s based on the tag and "sweat guard" on the top. I guess my search for a WW2 era one continues but for the bundle deal I got for this another item I'm happy to have it.

Michael I think you are right about your hat being from 1961, I was looking through USMF and another user had a cap from 1962 and the number after the C was said to be the year it was manufactured. I'll post a link to that thread below.

US Navy flat hat..... real deal or repro? - UNIFORMS - U.S. Militaria Forum

[reneblacky]

Just expanding a little on contract codes, here's a list of some of the WW2 types found (forgot where I found this list)

US Navy

All contracts were awarded in numerical order starting with 1.Typically you see a contract example NXSX-12345 the
N-meaning naval
XS is the designation for the bureau of Supplies and Accounts which is the bureau that oversees all the contracting bureaus
the last designation represents the cognizant bureau which the account is for so an NXSX means is that the Bureau of supplies and Accounts awarded a contract on representing themselves
the other naval bureaus are as follows with their designation
Aeronautics- A
Supplies and Accounts-X
Yards and Docks-Y
Radio division-R
Naval Personnel-P
Other-S
Medicine and Surgery-M
Ordnance-O
Secretary's Office-D
you might see an NXSA which the contract was awarded through the Bureau of supplies and accounts for the bureau of aeronautics.so the series of contracts you will encounter are
NXSX
NXSA
NXSY
NXSR
NXSP
NXSS
NXSM
NXSO
NXSD
Most of the bureaus contract through themselves their designations are as follows
Aeronautics-OA
Yards and docks-OY
Ships-OBS
Naval Personnel-OP
Ordnance-ORD
Marine corps-OM
Coast Guard-TCG
you will see these contracting bureau prefixes
NOA
NOY
NOBS
NOP
NORD
NOM
NTCG

There are also contract prefixes you will encounter they are 288, 140,145 and a few others these numbers represent the procurement station within the naval department.I have only been able to identify the 288 prefix this Identifies Naval Aviation Supply Depot Philadelphia (NASD) these contracts represent contracts for the bureau of aeronautics.
On a piece of naval equipment you rarely see a date only a contract number.It is possible to date a piece using the contract number.When you do see a date with a contract number that is the month/day/and fiscal year the contract was awarded not the actual date of manufacture but most likely within a few months.an example would be a date of Dec. 1943 is the fiscal year but the manufacturing carried over into 1944 so because your item is dated 1943 does not necessarily mean it was made in 1943.
another contract prefix you will encounter is N5XS the represents the fiscal year [1945]when the series of contract numbers reached 99,999 and started over from 1.
This is a series i put together for the NXSX contracts these cannot be used for any other contracting bureau as they use there own numerical system.You can use this by plugging in your contract number and find out approximately when your item was made.
NXSX

16868 oct. 1942
19958 dec. 1942

21747 jan. 1943
23534 feb. 1943
27612 april 1943
28180 may 1943
32566 jun. 1943
37374 sept. 1943

47990 jan. 1944
51656 feb.1944
55601 mar. 1944
58293 apr. 1944
63353 may 1944
64856 jun. 1944
71083 jul. 1944
74718 aug. 1944
77162 sep. 1944
82724 oct. 1944
87107 dec. 1944

90338 jan. 1945
93082 feb. 1945
96119 mar. 1945
98850 apr. 1945
5sx 1974 may 1945
5sx 7547 jul. 1945
5sx 12406 aug. 1945

here is an update they are not totally complete but should help
NXSS:
1687 3-42
4217 4-42
7740 6-42
11928 8-42
14079 9-42
15015 10-42
18466 11-42
21824 1-43
26505 3-43
27168 4-43
28504 5-43
33385 6-43
34738 7-43
39910 9-43
40695 10-43
42644 12-43
48178 1-44
50286 2-44
55322 3-44
58215 4-44
60848 5-44
69361 6-44
77132 9-44

NXSA:
17154 11-42
22419 1-43
29656 5-43
39220 11-43
44572 12-43
49717 2-44
62370 5-44
73850 8-44
87501 12-44
87749 1-45
NX5SA 6383 6-45

NOA:
327 2-43
471 4-43
992 6-43
3071 2-44

288s
2231 2-42
2827 3-42
7545 10-42
9575 12-42
10907 2-43
12549 3-43
13174 4-43
15000 6-43
17304 10-43
19055 12-43
20396 2-44
21627 3-44
22480 4-44
23192 5-44
24513 7-44
24986 8-44
29393 2-45
30304 4-45
31909 5-45

140s
3335 5-42
7475 7-42
16782 2-43
19931 5-43
23194 6-43
33038 9-43
37799 12-43
40627 2-44
45809 6-44
53135 9-44
58624 11-44
58639 12-44
61836 1-45
70239 5-45
71746 6-45