The first "separable coupon ticket" was patented by John Michael Lyons of Moncton, New Brunswick on June 5, 1882. The ticket showed the issuing station, the destination and a consecutive number for reference. The lower half of the ticket was given to the passenger, while the upper half, with a hole at the top, was inserted into a brass sleeve and then attached to the baggage by a strap.
At some point, reinforced paper tags were introduced. They are designed to not detach as easily as older tags during transport.
Current bag tags include a bar code. These bag tags are printed using thermal or bar code printers that print on an adhesive paper stock. This printed strip is then attached to the luggage at check in. This allows for automated sorting of the bags to reduce the number of misrouted, misplaced or delayed bags.
Begson designed a collection of luggage tags that are available for wall graphics. Several more travel destinations will be released under this collection.
