Beautiful 1778 2-Reale, Cufflinks, and Buttons

Steve in PA

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Jul 5, 2010
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This past Saturday I went out to one of my well pounded sites that had been recently plowed. My brother from Colorado was in town, so I armed him with my Garrett AT Gold and away we went. Even though this place has been hit hard by me and others I have brought here, it is a large site, with deep targets remaining and fringe areas that have not been investigated thoroughly. There is also a good chance of finding early silver here since it had already given up 16 Spanish silvers, a Draped Bust dime, and a Capped Bust half dime. After about an hour of not finding anything, the plowed zone started to give up some buttons. My brother dug a tombac and I dug a flat button, then I found cuff links on back to back signals. Finds continued on a slow but steady pace for the next several hours, then I heard my brother, who was working in a fringe area, where I had never went, yelling that he had Spanish Silver. I walked the 80 yards or so to where he was digging expecting to see a half real, but there he was with a 2 reale in his hand, and a nice one at that.

Here are our finds before cleaning (mine on the bottom two rows)
All Dirty.JPG

After cleaning
All Clean.JPG

Here is the 2-Reale. Turns out it was minted in Seville, Spain rather than one of the New World mints. Of course we see lots of Pistareens which were minted in Spain, but it is uncommon to find a Pillar or Bust type over here that was minted in Spain.
Two Reale - F.JPG
Two Reale = B.JPG

The other notable finds were the two cufflinks which I hit on back to back signals about 4 feet apart. the first one was a running fox "Tallio" in poor shape. The "Tallio" is almost cut off the edge of the cufflink and the fox is not the best image either.
Tallio.JPG

Here is a "Tallio" cufflink I dug at another site for comparison.
Tallio Good.JPG

The second cufflink I dug has a scalloped border and what looks like faint letters in the center. They are easier to see with the piece in hand. Here are a couple views.
Cufflink.JPG
DSCN3289.JPG

This cufflink has a drilled eye wedge shank which is unusual for these late 18th century oval cufflinks.
Cufflink Back.JPG

I have only seen this type of shank on two other cufflinks - one was an Admiral Rodney cufflink dug by Bill D. The other was on this G. Washington cufflink that I dug.
GW-Link-B1.jpg.JPG
GW-Link-F.jpg.JPG

Finally, here are some ceramics I picked up.
Ceramics.JPG

Enjoy the pics and HH to all :thumbsup:
 

Upvote 39

shedseeker

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Oct 28, 2012
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Nice job !!
 

Texas Ed

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Fantastic finds and congrats! Thanks for sharing the pictures with all of us & wish you many more great finds.

Texas ED
 

Loco-Digger

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You certainly are a nice brother to visit Steve. I dream of digging a reale someday. Congrats on all those buttons and other relics.
 

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Steve in PA

Steve in PA

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You certainly are a nice brother to visit Steve. I dream of digging a reale someday. Congrats on all those buttons and other relics.
He donates whatever he finds on my sites to the my collection. I keep all my finds segregated by site, and I have fairly complete collections from some fairly important sites.
 

Scrappy

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Wow that's a big beautiful silver. A two Reale is on my list. Congrats to your bro, and you for supplying him the site;)

I must say that cuff shank is quite unusual. High quality however. Is it the same dimensions as your GW cuff? Perhaps the same manufacturer?
 

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Carolina Tom

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Awesome coin... congrats to your brother. I like the cuff links too. Very nice finds.
 

s1222l

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Nice!! Congrats!
 

Bass

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Jan 20, 2013
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Great find on the 2 reale. Congratulations
 

TRanegar36

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Awesome stuff!!!
 

Rick (Nova Scotia)

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May 8, 2008
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Nice to have a site so rich that it keeps giving for years, thank you mr. plow (and I've said that before)
That is a lot of Silver for one site, I guess you mentioned it before that it was a tavern ?
Cool Cuff links, I find very few of them, cool you got two back to back digs, I was kind of expecting a pair.
2 R is a good dig too. I have a bust type 1776, but different reverse than that one, just realizing there are quite a few different combinations.
 

metalev4

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That's a really nice piece of silver Steve. Great digs from a hammered site.
 

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Steve in PA

Steve in PA

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Jul 5, 2010
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Wow that's a big beautiful silver. A two Reale is on my list. Congrats to your bro, and you for supplying him the site;)

I must say that cuff shank is quite unusual. High quality however. Is it the same dimensions as your GW cuff? Perhaps the same manufacturer?

Steve, The GW is smaller, yet thicker, and appears to be made of copper instead of brass. The GW is definitely the highest quality of any of the two dozen or so oval cufflinks I have found.
 

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Steve in PA

Steve in PA

Gold Member
Jul 5, 2010
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Pittsburgh, PA
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Fisher F75, XP Deus, Equinox 600, Fisher 1270
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Nice to have a site so rich that it keeps giving for years, thank you mr. plow (and I've said that before)
That is a lot of Silver for one site, I guess you mentioned it before that it was a tavern ?
Cool Cuff links, I find very few of them, cool you got two back to back digs, I was kind of expecting a pair.
2 R is a good dig too. I have a bust type 1776, but different reverse than that one, just realizing there are quite a few different combinations.

Rick, yes this was a tavern site. I suspect your 1776 bust type 2-reale has a South American mintmark - Mexico City, Lima, or Potosi most likely. This being a Seville, Spain minted coin, the reverse is different than South American minted coins.
 

Captain Caveman

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That is one beautiful coin! A big congratz to your brother! Congratz to you on the cufflinks!
 

GrandBlancDig

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Beautiful crisp detail on that reale!! Lifetime type find
 

Bill D. (VA)

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Rick, yes this was a tavern site. I suspect your 1776 bust type 2-reale has a South American mintmark - Mexico City, Lima, or Potosi most likely. This being a Seville, Spain minted coin, the reverse is different than South American minted coins.

Great hunt guys! Its amazing how moving a little dirt around can make all the difference. Unfortunately that never happens down this way. And BTW - I like that joint assayers mark (CF) on the 2 reale, and it represents Carlos Jiminez Alvarez (C) who was a Seville assayer from 1764-1788, and Francisco Lopez Amisa (F) from 1767-1783.
Francisco Lopez Amisa
 

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