UPDATE: See Shanegalang's post in reply #58! He is going to use the silver to make rings for him and his wife. Fantastic idea--can't wait to see and hope you'll post a photo of the finished product, Shane!
Hello All,
Went on one final dig with BuckleDad before he left town and dug a really worn and blackened 1875 Seated Dime. That is right at the beginning of the video below as a catch-up.
But the real achievement was this last hunt with Shanegalang. We met up to rehunt the early site we'd discovered last hunt (gave a half real and a pristine 1838 Seated Dime plus many buttons and clay pipe stems). We got to work. A couple of flat buttons showed. Then a couple more pipe stems. Then I hear AAAAAAAIIIIIIYYYYYYEEEEEEE! and I see Shanegalang holding a silver. He had broken his silver drought with a half real. 1803.
We kept on digging, and I got a couple tombac buttons. There were globs of melted brass and copper everywhere, which led us to suspect that the house that was once there had burned (the burning off of the cane fields every fall doesn't create that type of heat). These melted globs rang up high, so there were many false alarms with us thinking we had found coins. There was also melted lead everywhere. Lead is common in CW era and later sites, as many cast their own bullets. But the early sites down here have an abundance of lead, leading me to think it was used in ship building, etc.
Here is some of the bigger pieces of melted brass that I dug. Shane had a big pocket full of it too.
Well...of course Shane got a high tone of 87/88 and dug a giant blob of melted SILVER from this site!!
Weighs just over 2.6 ounces.
I've seen a lot of melted aluminum before, and this isn't it. Non-malleable. Shone like silver (a little more dull in color than chrome or aluminum). And it's heavy. Rings up like a silver dollar.
I hunted a couple more rows and got a nice zinc signal to dig a BEAUTIFUL 1840-O Seated Half Dime (no drapery).
More blobs of melted brass and lead later and I spied a colonial era shoe buckle piece laying on top of the ground. Then got the neck of a spur.
Then it got real quiet and we dig a couple rows without fining anything. Shanegalang decided to head home. He had marked the next row he was gonna do by sticking the shovel in the ground. We said bye and I decided to come back up his row. Ten steps into the row I got an 83 reading on the F75! In the clod I saw something that I have never seen in 22 years:
It was my first ever BARBER QUARTER. I've dug Seateds, Capped Coins, all types of newer silver coins, and plenty of Barber Dimes and even one Barber Half and a Morgan Dollar. But up until today I had never dug a Barber Quarter. This one was a beauty. Farmer Dropped in the cane field not long after it was minted. 1893-S!
I kept going and probably 15 feet later I got an iffy signal in the side of a row. Down deep it was a plow-struck 1838 Seated Half Dime!!
I finished up the row and decided that it was a good time to call it a day. I took this photo of some of the finds:
Photos like that make me wanna dig!!
When I got home I cleaned the finds and used my silver cleaning method on the silver coins. That method is described in this post, and it is the absolute best way that I've ever found to clean blackened or tarnished dug silver coins:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/cleaning-preservation/442189-how-clean-blackened-silver-coins.html
I'll let you be the judge of this cleaning method as I close with photos of each coin I dug front and back. "Before" photos are on the left.
After" photos on the right.
1875 Seated Dime from the hunt with BuckleDad:
1840-O Half Dime, No Drapery:
1838 Half Dime:
And the 1893-S Barber Quarter:
Here is a group shot of both of our finds:
BIG Congrats to Shanegalang for breaking his silver drought. Congrats on Half Real #10 for the year. Let's see if we can make 12! Can't wait to dig again!
Best Wishes,
Buck
The CaneField Bandits
Hello All,
Went on one final dig with BuckleDad before he left town and dug a really worn and blackened 1875 Seated Dime. That is right at the beginning of the video below as a catch-up.
But the real achievement was this last hunt with Shanegalang. We met up to rehunt the early site we'd discovered last hunt (gave a half real and a pristine 1838 Seated Dime plus many buttons and clay pipe stems). We got to work. A couple of flat buttons showed. Then a couple more pipe stems. Then I hear AAAAAAAIIIIIIYYYYYYEEEEEEE! and I see Shanegalang holding a silver. He had broken his silver drought with a half real. 1803.
We kept on digging, and I got a couple tombac buttons. There were globs of melted brass and copper everywhere, which led us to suspect that the house that was once there had burned (the burning off of the cane fields every fall doesn't create that type of heat). These melted globs rang up high, so there were many false alarms with us thinking we had found coins. There was also melted lead everywhere. Lead is common in CW era and later sites, as many cast their own bullets. But the early sites down here have an abundance of lead, leading me to think it was used in ship building, etc.
Here is some of the bigger pieces of melted brass that I dug. Shane had a big pocket full of it too.
Well...of course Shane got a high tone of 87/88 and dug a giant blob of melted SILVER from this site!!
Weighs just over 2.6 ounces.
I've seen a lot of melted aluminum before, and this isn't it. Non-malleable. Shone like silver (a little more dull in color than chrome or aluminum). And it's heavy. Rings up like a silver dollar.
I hunted a couple more rows and got a nice zinc signal to dig a BEAUTIFUL 1840-O Seated Half Dime (no drapery).
More blobs of melted brass and lead later and I spied a colonial era shoe buckle piece laying on top of the ground. Then got the neck of a spur.
Then it got real quiet and we dig a couple rows without fining anything. Shanegalang decided to head home. He had marked the next row he was gonna do by sticking the shovel in the ground. We said bye and I decided to come back up his row. Ten steps into the row I got an 83 reading on the F75! In the clod I saw something that I have never seen in 22 years:
It was my first ever BARBER QUARTER. I've dug Seateds, Capped Coins, all types of newer silver coins, and plenty of Barber Dimes and even one Barber Half and a Morgan Dollar. But up until today I had never dug a Barber Quarter. This one was a beauty. Farmer Dropped in the cane field not long after it was minted. 1893-S!
I kept going and probably 15 feet later I got an iffy signal in the side of a row. Down deep it was a plow-struck 1838 Seated Half Dime!!
I finished up the row and decided that it was a good time to call it a day. I took this photo of some of the finds:
Photos like that make me wanna dig!!
When I got home I cleaned the finds and used my silver cleaning method on the silver coins. That method is described in this post, and it is the absolute best way that I've ever found to clean blackened or tarnished dug silver coins:
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/cleaning-preservation/442189-how-clean-blackened-silver-coins.html
I'll let you be the judge of this cleaning method as I close with photos of each coin I dug front and back. "Before" photos are on the left.
After" photos on the right.
1875 Seated Dime from the hunt with BuckleDad:
1840-O Half Dime, No Drapery:
1838 Half Dime:
And the 1893-S Barber Quarter:
Here is a group shot of both of our finds:
BIG Congrats to Shanegalang for breaking his silver drought. Congrats on Half Real #10 for the year. Let's see if we can make 12! Can't wait to dig again!
Best Wishes,
Buck
The CaneField Bandits
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