I was shown the bottom pieces by the previous owner who said he acquired them from Savage Arms. The one on the left is a positive image and is probably a 'hub' - a hardened punch to create the working dies, I think the one on the right is a working die made from that hub. The hub would be pressed into soft annealed steel which would be hardened afterwards, the same process used for coin dies, this allows for stamping in other features, with coins it would be the mint marks.
He said he use the die on the right to cast some fobs from gold. It might be that Savage cast the later fobs. The earliest fobs appear to have been stamped because they have a makers mark on the back, with later fobs the backs are plain and look they could be from an open mold.
I have a couple gold washed ones with initials engraved on them with a stippled back ground, he said he had an engraved 1899 that had initials and a matching watch fob..... so I'm trying to find two 1899's with initials that match my watch fobs.
ADDED - here's a link to an old post on fobs, I acquired another variation since then, left facing without any writing, just Savage in the headdress, like the one in posted by TomA in this link but without initials.
Re:_Savage_watch_fobThese are photobucket files, if you right click on them a box will pop up, clink on 'open in new tab' and the image will appear without the photobucket 'watermark'.
