Hello All,
It's been quite a busy two day hunt for us. Let me just say that you will want to see the video. In the past 48 hours we have added TWO to our Spanish silver total (for a total of 11 this year!), I dug my oldest coin ever, and I got a scarce War of 1812 button that I have never seen one of posted on this forum before!
So here's the story...
I met up with Shanegalang to do some "boots on the ground" time tracking down a new site. We found the site, although it was small and sparse with finds. I dug the military button not long into the hunt, and suspected it was military, but didn't know for certain until I got home. It turned out to be a Regiment of Artillerists button 1811-1813. This is a type that I have not personally dug before, and have not seen posted on the forum. Later on, Old Shanegalang got a nice 1797 one real! Then we got up early the next day and put another all-day hunt in. The finds were thin, but they were there. I dug two pocket watch winders, several interesting flat buttons, and eyeballed a trade bead. But really it was 8 hours into the hunt before anything decent was dug. (Mainly because I didn't recognize my oldest coin when I dug it--I thought it was a brass washer due to the hole in the center!). I got a nice 1831 Mexican Republic one real to end the day, and only upon cleaning and investigating my random brass bits from the field did I see the date on the coin I dug--1722!!!!
Folks, always, Always, ALWAYS clean your random brass/junk finds! Only throw away or recycle things that you are certain are junk. If I had tossed that handful of brass into the trash, or the recycling bin I would've never known!
Here are the photos of these great finds, and a link to the video.
Here's the 1Real Shane dug:
And the Regiment of Artillerists button I dug. It was nice that the shank was attached.
A nice civilian two-piece gilded button:
The backmark on this large sized flat button was interesting (eagle and banner):
Now for three eyeball finds. First, a "Russian Blue" trade bead:
A very short (1.5" long) grey clay pipe with the bowl broken off:
And a large two-hole button made of bone:
My beautiful 1Real. It's nice to finally dig a cap and rays style Real. Shane has dug a cap and rays Big 8, and an eye-popping 2Reales.
And my French 9 Deniers copper. It is a Colonies Francoises copper dated 1722 ("H" mintmark). These were made specifically for French colonial possessions, and thus they saw limited circulation in Canada and French Louisiana. I am absolutely thrilled to dig this (you can tell by the photo why I didn't think much of it out in the field!). Recovering something French Colonial was a major goal of mine down here. If you are not familiar with these coins, you will want to read the 1-page article in the link below from CoinWorld. It describes this coin as "America's first copper." (the link takes a moment to load.)
First 'American' coppers | Coin World
It appears that these coppers are very seldom dug.
Here's a non-dug example for comparison (click the photo to enlarge it):
And here is a photo of all the finds. I actually dug the spout off a Colonial Era copper teapot! Crazy!
Here's a Georgian Teapot that is almost an exact match to the spout I dug. The auction house lists this as c.1760-1800, English-made:
The Lewis & Tomes flat button above the clay pipe bowl is a beauty. Almost all of its gilding remains.
Best Wishes,
Buck
It's been quite a busy two day hunt for us. Let me just say that you will want to see the video. In the past 48 hours we have added TWO to our Spanish silver total (for a total of 11 this year!), I dug my oldest coin ever, and I got a scarce War of 1812 button that I have never seen one of posted on this forum before!
So here's the story...
I met up with Shanegalang to do some "boots on the ground" time tracking down a new site. We found the site, although it was small and sparse with finds. I dug the military button not long into the hunt, and suspected it was military, but didn't know for certain until I got home. It turned out to be a Regiment of Artillerists button 1811-1813. This is a type that I have not personally dug before, and have not seen posted on the forum. Later on, Old Shanegalang got a nice 1797 one real! Then we got up early the next day and put another all-day hunt in. The finds were thin, but they were there. I dug two pocket watch winders, several interesting flat buttons, and eyeballed a trade bead. But really it was 8 hours into the hunt before anything decent was dug. (Mainly because I didn't recognize my oldest coin when I dug it--I thought it was a brass washer due to the hole in the center!). I got a nice 1831 Mexican Republic one real to end the day, and only upon cleaning and investigating my random brass bits from the field did I see the date on the coin I dug--1722!!!!
Folks, always, Always, ALWAYS clean your random brass/junk finds! Only throw away or recycle things that you are certain are junk. If I had tossed that handful of brass into the trash, or the recycling bin I would've never known!
Here are the photos of these great finds, and a link to the video.
Here's the 1Real Shane dug:
And the Regiment of Artillerists button I dug. It was nice that the shank was attached.
A nice civilian two-piece gilded button:
The backmark on this large sized flat button was interesting (eagle and banner):
Now for three eyeball finds. First, a "Russian Blue" trade bead:
A very short (1.5" long) grey clay pipe with the bowl broken off:
And a large two-hole button made of bone:
My beautiful 1Real. It's nice to finally dig a cap and rays style Real. Shane has dug a cap and rays Big 8, and an eye-popping 2Reales.
And my French 9 Deniers copper. It is a Colonies Francoises copper dated 1722 ("H" mintmark). These were made specifically for French colonial possessions, and thus they saw limited circulation in Canada and French Louisiana. I am absolutely thrilled to dig this (you can tell by the photo why I didn't think much of it out in the field!). Recovering something French Colonial was a major goal of mine down here. If you are not familiar with these coins, you will want to read the 1-page article in the link below from CoinWorld. It describes this coin as "America's first copper." (the link takes a moment to load.)
First 'American' coppers | Coin World
It appears that these coppers are very seldom dug.
Here's a non-dug example for comparison (click the photo to enlarge it):
And here is a photo of all the finds. I actually dug the spout off a Colonial Era copper teapot! Crazy!
Here's a Georgian Teapot that is almost an exact match to the spout I dug. The auction house lists this as c.1760-1800, English-made:
The Lewis & Tomes flat button above the clay pipe bowl is a beauty. Almost all of its gilding remains.
Best Wishes,
Buck
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You don't see anything like that very often . ED
