Coffin plates are decorative adornments attached to a coffin that can contain various inscriptions like the name and death date of the deceased or a simple terms of endearment.

They are usually made of a soft metal like lead, pewter, silver, brass, copper or tin. Coffin plates go back as far as the 1600s and were reserved for people of wealth. Through the centuries, more people were able to afford the luxury of a coffin plate and with the industrial revolution the cost of the plates by the mid-1800s decreased so much that almost every family could afford to have one put on the coffin of their loved ones.

When coffin plates began increasing in popularity, the practice of removing the plates from the coffin before burial became the trend as the coffin plates were often removed to be kept as mementos by the loved ones of the deceased. This practice peaked in the late 1800s.

In Australia coffin name plates are legally required in most states for both burial and cremation as a means of identification of the deceased.

Death customs