Educate us all, what was consider valuables to the early settlers

[49er12]

I understand most where poor obviously back in 1700 to 1800s, when we go detecting for old foundations occasionally we find a silver coin, more likely Indian head penny, maybe large cent etc. but did the early settlers have anything such as silver or gold precious metals to have or hide in ground. Curious if they where poor what could we possibly find or expect to find other than typical, buttons or spoons. Thankyou because I can’t see these folks burying anything much , shoot they had nothing. Please prove me wrong am I searching incorrectly or am I right, thankyou

 

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[SultansOfSwing]

Same things you would consider of value now. Heirlooms such as jewelry or silverware. Things that got handed down. When they took the ships over they usually stashed a few personal items of value along with their essentials.

The real items of value were things needed to survive in this new country on new land. Guns and ammunition, farming tools, vegetable seeds, home building tools. Those items meant life or death for the new settlers. They may not be very exciting at times for certain detectorists but if a settler had to choose between a silver coin or his rifle, hed pick the rifle every time. Look at it that way when you find old farm tools and other items like that. They kept that person and family alive for a while hopefully.

 

[creskol]

The things that were valuable to settlers were just about anything that was usable or had utility value to it.

 

[smokeythecat]

You all have a pretty good handle on it. The most common item we find on long gone people's homesites are musketballs and smaller buckshot. Then buttons. Then mainly iron utensil pieces, pieces because a lot of these homes were located in what became farm fields and the plows tear them up. The people mainly had redware, a common pottery style, we find shards of this. And then we generally find a piece or two of a slightly better type of pottery, most likely found is a piece of white salt glaze Staffordshire pottery. If we find coins, it's generally halfpennies from George I, II or III. Hardly any silver.

When we get to a more affluent house, or tavern or such, then out comes the Spanish or French silvers, jewelry (mainly in brass), stuff like that.

 

[49er12]

Yeah I suppose thinking of those times of say 1800s, not going find coins so much, more personal stuff as spoken, tools, buttons, horse stuff, iron miscellaneous. Many woods trips we’ve made last 2 years early 1900 up, we have found silver dimes, Indian head pennies, buffalo nickels. I mean how much coins did avg poor person have, they bartered in trade I guess, most where farmers, few blacksmiths. So crops, trading was the times, please expand if need be

 

[hvacker]

I'm just guessing but I would think there was a lot of bartering. Farther away from cities especially.

In the Westward expansion people often left big things behind like furniture. They took smaller things they valued. Later in the 20th century in CA, great collectable glass etc. could be ez to find but no furniture. In the East lots of furniture but no small collectables.
When I was involved with collectables 40 years ago, some traders would bring a truck East and load furniture and sell it in the West. Highly profitable.
I see a lot of stuff in the "What Is It" forum that's basically stuff that might have been tossed. Still no value. I once heard gold etc. would have been buried by a tree and visible from the kitchen window. I have NO idea if this is truth, if the house is gone, or the tree died. BUT if I buried gold it might be in my backyard by a tree. I might think this would have been possible when the Government collected the gold.

Just a side note: For tax purposes today, any barter is income for the one side that got the best deal. The Feds say there is no such thing as a break ever barter. Someone always got the best end.

 

[smallfoot]

I have a couple of silver spoons that were passed down with the story that they were buried when that northern arsonist moved thru Georgia. Might have been the only kind of thing my relatives had that seemed valuable.

 

[MarshFry]

The real items of value were things needed to survive in this new country on new land. Guns and ammunition, farming tools, vegetable seeds, home building tools. Those items meant life or death for the new settlers. They may not be very exciting at times for certain detectorists but if a settler had to choose between a silver coin or his rifle, hed pick the rifle every time.

 

[stoneshirt]

Hi.
Some came with Wealth.
stoneshirt.

 

[Tiredman]

Late 1800's early 1900's homesteaders valued major purchase items such as sewing machines and the clock. Sears Roebuck catalogue is a good place to see things they most times could only dream of buying.

 

[releventchair]

Cash was insurance.
Few things could be secured for an uncertain future , (failed crop ,injury,war,disease, old age ect.) and keeping a tight grip on any available monetary resources was worth doing.

On a homestead , where would you spend it? You wouldn't with the rare exception of a peddler or mail order ,though mail order early on did not mean home delivery in remote areas.
So cash might as well not be carried around to risk losing on the homestead.
There's some accounts of coins in hearths. Above top plates of walls ect. And a host of other hiding places.
But when folks left a homestead (moved) they can be expected to take the cash with them.
With an uncertain world , children or trusted relatives could be expected to know where to look for their inheritance should something snuff the owner(s) out prematurely.

Yes , a lady treasured her silverware .silver dishes when they had them. They too could be expected to leave the homestead.

Leaving us with the odds of a lost cache. Or one unclaimed by the deceased's relatives.
With the value of cash vs the gaunt specter of being truly destitute being a repeated theme over multiple generations , wealth in the form of money needed to be cared for more than casually.

Tools on the homestead were worth more at times as mentioned. Coins don't fill a belly or build a shelter.
Animals/stock and attendant equipment were for some folks a slow acquisition. Just like expanding the original shelter , it took time and resources.
A handfull of coins could be the net sum of a safety net or nest egg or insurance against not just hard times , but worse than hard times for even a successful homestead.

I teased a friend who's family has been on the same farm for four generations after I detected it , telling him he neglected to tell me they were poor after I found about 12 cents in clad..
Yet though his grandfather worked a "city" job in addition to farming , money was not just strewn about! Every hard won bit of it had a use and purpose and value.

What did his grandpa hide?
Things of value to him. Utilitarian to living where and how he did. Most of which he made family aware of.
Guns for one.
Money was not reported as found hidden. Nor was any suspected as being hidden.

Was a time his "gang"(no , not criminals ) pulled a regular holiday prank with an old vehicle that was hidden in a barn.
That was one of the few secrets there.

Part of my focus was a low dirt floored "workshop" with a woodstove for winter where gramps spent time out of sight of prying eyes.
No cache to my knowledge after a check. Just to try to be sure no card playing money was squirreled there....

Another site there were two cigar boxes on a crude basements rafters. (Not cash either). But items the family don't know where they all ended up.
But it was likely family involved in the disappearance of what was missing. (?)

 

[Ryano]

Salt

 

[uglymailman]

If they were poor what could you expect to find? At one time, homesteaders burned down their buildings to get the nails before they left. In the movie Sargent York, the shooting contest (turkey shoot) the guy who came in 4th or 5th (?) got to "dig the lead out". If real poor people got their hands on coin they tended to know it's location most of the time. From the Civil War to the first World War a day's wages ran from .25 a day to 2 dollars a day. The honest old cowboy mostly worked for "a dollar a day and found" and did the chores on Sunday for free.
Tiredman's #10 post mentioned clocks. Until after WW1 around here, pocket watches and other clocks were taxed. Doesn't mean good stuff isn't out there. There's always the forgetful, drunks and fools. Good luck.

 

[Tiredman]

Clocks! When I was a teenager the folks took care of Uncle Vic. He was a WW 1 vet who had survived being gassed in the war. He woke up in the middle of the night and didn't know where he was at. When we found him, he said, "we been robbed, they stole every clock in the damn house." Another time cholate pudding was on his night stand in case he was hungry during the night. He had knocked it over, seen it and said, "damn cat!"

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Most people around here were farmers or worked in a mill. They were practical people with few luxuries. In eight years of detecting, I've never found any Sterling silver utensils. A few silver plated spoons, but that's it. I've found dozens of broken pewter and iron utensils around 1700's cellar holes, though.

Buttons and shoe buckles are almost always brass or iron. I've found a couple of shoe buckles that had a thin layer of silver applied to them, but never found a solid silver buckle. Same for buttons. Never found a solid silver button, but have found over 150 brass buttons from the 1700's.

Coins are another item that reveals how practical people were back then. I've found dozens of large cents and KG coppers, but only found 4 silver coins from the 1700's. They were all half reales, which was the equivalent of 6 1/4 cents back then. Farmers carried pennies, if they carried anything with them while out and about.

Bottom line, don't get your hopes up! I recently talked to a newbie and he said he couldn't wait to start finding silver and gold coins! Good luck with that! Silver coins, maybe, but gold coins are scarce as hen's teeth around here. Didn't want to discourage him, so I wished him luck and kept my opinion to myself! HH.