Insignia Marine Enlisted Epaulets.

[major bill]

"For Enlisted Men - Yellow metal crescent, and scale strap, with yellow worsted bullion to be removable, in order to clean the metal.

For Sergeant Major, Quartermaster Sergeant, Drum Major, and Chief Musicians - Bullion three and one-half inches, long, and three-eights of an inch in diameter.

For Sergeants - Sams as for Sergeant Major, except that the bullion will be only one-quarter of and inch in diameter.

For Corporals - Same as for Sergeant Major, except that the bullion will be only one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter.

For Privates - Same as for Corporals."

In photographs many Marine Sergeants appear to wear the one-sixteen inch diameter bullion fringe. In fact photos of Sergeants wearing the 1/4 fringe are rare. So a couple of questions.
1. Why would a sergeant not wear the correct epaulets? These were not part of the clothing allowance and were issue and returned at no cost to the sergeant. The Marine Corps had a shortage of sergeant epaulets?
2. How similar were these to the metal epaulets worn by Army enlisted men?
3. The fringe was removable for cleaning the epaulets, so were they ever worn without the fringe?

 

[vmicraig]

I am sure the experts at the Marine Corps History Division in Quantico or the guys and gals at the Gray Research Center aboard the base would have all the info you could ever want on the Subject. https://grc-usmcu.libguides.com/marine-corps-archives/main/about

Write-ups note that pre-war, all Marines wore two epaulettes on the full dress coat. The epaulettes worn by officers were gold cloth, with a solid metal crescent. Inside the crescent each officer wore the emblem of the Corps, the Infantry bugle with the silver "M." Centered in the strap of the epaulette was the officer's insignia of rank. The Commandant and all field grade officers wore bullion that was one-half inch in diameter and three and a half inches long. Marine Captains wore bullion that was one-fourth an inch in diameter and two and a half inches long. Lieutenants had fringe that was one-eighth an inch in diameter and was two and a half inches long.

All enlisted ranks wore brass scale epaulettes, similar to the U.S. Army Dress uniform epaulettes. Made entirely from brass, enlisted epaulettes had a large crescent and scale straps. Detachable, yellow worsted fringe hung from the crescent in diameters that varied according to the wearer's rank, which I assume is exactly as listed in your description above.

Here's a pic of my 1851 pattern enlisted scales. NCO scales had brass rivets adorning the scales, whereas non-rates did not. If wearing scales, the soldier or Marine in this case was "not of gentleman's rank." Just a tad larger than Army scales. Mine are from Horstman, Philadelphia.