1700s French Silver Spoon, Silver Coins, and Powder Flask Spouts!

BuckleBoy

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Jun 12, 2006
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Hello All,

My goal was to take the wife and for us to get one more chance to dig a few more things before the end of 2014. We really did well today. I got out in a site that we have hunted before. Below is the story...

First off, here is the video:



In the turn row I immediately found this strange thing. Has a boat on it. Has to be a name plate from a tractor or something...any ideas?

HPIM4956.JPG HPIM4957.JPG

When we got out in the field, I got a decent reading and dug what looked like a small flat button. Strange thing is, the thing read 65 on the F75! Bending over I realized that it was a very tarnished 1839 Seated Half Dime! Her and I dug a couple musketballs each, then I dug the handle of a silver spoon. I didn't think much about it, but was happy to see some silver. , then my wife dug a powder flask spout. I was a little jealous, since I've actually never dug one of these...but it's hard to be jealous with an early Seated in your pocket. So I kept digging. A couple more musketballs later, I got a nice signal that I knew would be a dime. Wish I'd filmed it. One inch deep, a BEAUTIFUL 1875-S Seated Dime came up. One of the best Seated coins I have ever dug in terms of condition.

1875 in dirt.JPG 1875 in dirt1.JPG

Then I dug more of the handle of the spoon I'd just found. It had several hallmarks on it, and I could see an "S" and an "F" separated by stars. I was starting to get excited about it. Put that in my pocket, then my wife dug a SECOND powder flask spout. :D We picked up some killer pottery, then I got another great dime signal and popped out another farmer dropped coin--a 1911-D Barber Dime. Got a BIG red clay pipe bowl and a V Nickel and by that time the sun had started to go down.

When I got home, I posted the spoon handle on the .925 Forum, and it was identified as pre-Revolution FRENCH! The handle I dug fit the piece of the spoon with the hallmarks perfectly. When I put the pieces together I could see that the letters on the spoon were "SFC." According to the experts on the forum, these are the initials of the owner of the spoon! (From the .925 forum, reply by forum member Blakstone: "The mark at the broken end of the stem is the medium charge mark for the city of Paris under the tenure of tax farmer Henri Clavel (1781-1789): an interlaced script "LL". The crowned "T" is the Paris guild warden's annual mark in use July 1782-July 1783. The "ewer" mark is actually a somewhat rare mark also used by Clavel in place of the usual "décharge" mark indicating that the piece was destined for export out of France (in this case presumably Louisiana which, despite its resolutely French culture, was at the time under Spanish rule). There should also be a maker's mark, probably on the missing bits. Nice find!"

resized2.JPG

Now, I hope I can dig the rest of it!

Here are the coins. The half dime didn't clean up completely well, but it came a long way considering how bad it was! (Before/After photos)

HDobvbefore.JPG HDobvbafter.JPG

HDrevbefore.JPG HDrevbafter.JPG

seatedobv.JPG seatedrev.JPG

barberobv.JPG barberrev.JPG

Diggergirl's two powder flask tops, and an egg holder than she eyeballed!

powderflaskspouts.JPG HPIM4963.JPG

And both of our finds. :)

HPIM4960.JPG DG Finds.jpg

I'll be collecting the photos for the Annual Finds post soon, but until then I want to wish everyone on the forum a safe and happy 2015!

Best Wishes,

Buck
 

Last edited:
Upvote 25

Argentium

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Great finds Buckle boy ! I really like the spoon , the Seated Dime is Amazing !!! You've got a site there .
 

Old Dude

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BB, you and DG ended the year on an extremely high note! I hope you and your lovely wife have much happiness and fun in those fields next year. Oh, and stay outta Shane's rows, lol!
 

Vino

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Great hunt BB..Love them seated.
What do you use to take the pics of the coins?? They are awsome.
Coin microscope?
 

beez0404

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You two ended the year with a bang! Great finds. Love the silver spoon. And the seated is awesome.
 

VOL1266-X

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Good video. Doug wants that egg holder-LOL. The"Holy Terror" with her new machine was hell on those powder flasks. Tell her I have only dug one PF top & it came from a U.S. camp that Tenn. digger found. You two had a good hunt. I hope Molly doesn't get burned out on digging-LOL. That seated was a beauty as you described yesterday. Good luck tomorrow. HNY, Q.
 

StormSurge

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Oct 6, 2011
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Nice year end hunt. Mine didn't pan out the way I hoped but I did manage a few three ringers, a few .44 pistol rounds, a couple flat buttons and misc. Yours went very well. If I were you I'd start the new year at the same spot.
Best of luck!
 

Scrappy

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Wow . Just wow !

Thanks for sharing and making me jealous.

Cool finds and congrats
 

cjon455

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Th at an incredible end of 2014!, neat how that seated cleaned up, to the untrained eye it might have gotten written off as a counterfeit, nice save!!

Happy new year!
 

Ahab8

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Hell of a hunt Buck. That spoon piece is incredible with the initials. I love stuff like that. And some very nice coins as well bud. Looking forward to your year end post. Mine got moved instantly. Maybe with your clout they'll keep yours around lol
 

Oct 5, 2014
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Hello Buckleboy,

Congratulations on your hunt! You and your wife found some very interesting items.

Regards,
 

Digginutah

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Jan 1, 2015
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The ship emblem in the first photo is from an old Plymouth automobile, probably 1930's. The dpcd on the back is the logo for Desoto Plymouth, Chrysler, Dodge, the early form of mopar.
 

Ia.FurTrade

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Super find's, BB! Nice Seated!! DG's powder flask tops are cool!
Your "badge" looks to be a car emblem..........the CDDP on the back stands for Chrysler, Dodge, DeSoto, Plymouth........being a boat I would say Plymouth.

Another great hunt!!

Iowa Dale

Oop's! Digginutah beat me by a few minutes!
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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BB, you and DG ended the year on an extremely high note! I hope you and your lovely wife have much happiness and fun in those fields next year. Oh, and stay outta Shane's rows, lol!

haha, but I find the best things on his rows! :D
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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Great hunt BB..Love them seated.
What do you use to take the pics of the coins?? They are awsome.
Coin microscope?

I use a folding magnifier and the macro setting on my camera to take photos of the coins. You can get 'em from amazon for 5 bucks or so.

Similar to this one:

Folding Magnifier

For super high detail, like extreme close-ups, I use a coin magnifier and photograph through the tiny lens.

Cheers,

Buck
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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Good video. Doug wants that egg holder-LOL. The"Holy Terror" with her new machine was hell on those powder flasks. Tell her I have only dug one PF top & it came from a U.S. camp that Tenn. digger found. You two had a good hunt. I hope Molly doesn't get burned out on digging-LOL. That seated was a beauty as you described yesterday. Good luck tomorrow. HNY, Q.

I was going to the vehicle to get my phone and look up those powder flasks, and she said "daylight is wasting. Do that later. We have digging to do." And she wants to go later this week. No burn out there. Seems like those flask tops are hard to find. I think I have 5-6 flask panels in my collection, and no tops.
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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Jun 12, 2006
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Hell of a hunt Buck. That spoon piece is incredible with the initials. I love stuff like that. And some very nice coins as well bud. Looking forward to your year end post. Mine got moved instantly. Maybe with your clout they'll keep yours around lol

I'll just post mine in Annual Finds. I post those for myself as much as anyone else. More than anything just to keep it in perspective for me. Can't wait to see your 2014 wrap up. You've dug some great things this year!

Cheers,

Buck
 

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BuckleBoy

BuckleBoy

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The ship emblem in the first photo is from an old Plymouth automobile, probably 1930's. The dpcd on the back is the logo for Desoto Plymouth, Chrysler, Dodge, the early form of mopar.

Thank you so much for replying to my post! I was hoping that someone would have that very useful information about the ID of that piece. Best Wishes for a Wonderful 2015!
 

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