Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
New site produces bonanza of 1600s artifacts plus early military buttons & much more
This has been a rough month on the personal side with the recent loss of my father-in-law, my son being in the hospital, and my car getting hit, and all 3 of those events happened with a 2 hour period on the 10th. But things are slowly getting back to normal, so I was finally able to find time to get out and roam the fields at a new, large site that was oozing with potential. I also invited my regular hunting buddies Dan, Joey, and Stan, and all came home with some nice keepers.
This property is loaded with house sites, many 19[SUP]th[/SUP] to early 20[SUP]th[/SUP] century, but a couple colonial hotspots were also discovered. One small spot tucked away in an unsuspecting corner was quite productive with most finds dating to the late 17[SUP]th[/SUP] to early 18[SUP]th[/SUP] centuries, and a large number of early buckles and leather ornaments were recovered there, but almost no buttons and absolutely zero coins. That was a huge disappointment as this spot had “cob” or “hammered” written all over it. It did not help that most of the area was covered with a very dense, tall clover thanks to the recent spell of warm weather, and this made it extremely difficult if not impossible to swing the coil close to the dirt. So I’m sure we left some nice ones in the ground, but we may never get a chance to recover them as the property will be under contract in the next few days and may become off limits forever.
In addition to the colonial goodies, I was able to stumble across 3 really nice military buttons in random locations while roaming around the fields. The best of these was a rare Hillsborough Military Academy (NC) button in great condition with its gilt almost totally intact and a stand-up shank. This button dates to 1859-60, and most of the cadets at this school joined the Confederate Army when the war started. The others included a War of 1812 era artillery button (“eagle on cannon”) plus an exquisite early navy button identified as Albert’s NA86A7. It includes the backmark “Wise, Bielby, Hyde & Co” plus No 1/Extra Fine, and was produced in Birmingham England around 1820-30. The gilt on this example is about as good as it gets for a dug button.
I did chase a deep iron signal in the middle of the 17[SUP]th[/SUP] century site and found not only a nice colonial hoe, but the base to a very early shaft and globe bottle, or at least from one of the transitional varieties which preceded the true onion forms. These are extremely hard to find and only at the very earliest sites. A second hoe with a long, narrow shape was also found nearby and is likely a 17[SUP]th[/SUP] century grubbing hoe, and it was fused to the bottom of the bottle base so they were obviously discarded at the same time. Early occupation of this site was also confirmed with the recovery a 4 clay pipe stems with a bore diameter of 7/64s” which generally equates to the 1650 to 1680 period. A wide assortment of finds spanning nearly 300 years were recovered at this interesting and diverse site, and many are shown in the collection of images below. I was obviously very pleased with the results of this hunt, but it was disappointing that I was unable to put a colonial coin of any type under my coil. But I know they’re hiding somewhere in that deep clover. Time for the ole plywood trick ....
This has been a rough month on the personal side with the recent loss of my father-in-law, my son being in the hospital, and my car getting hit, and all 3 of those events happened with a 2 hour period on the 10th. But things are slowly getting back to normal, so I was finally able to find time to get out and roam the fields at a new, large site that was oozing with potential. I also invited my regular hunting buddies Dan, Joey, and Stan, and all came home with some nice keepers.
This property is loaded with house sites, many 19[SUP]th[/SUP] to early 20[SUP]th[/SUP] century, but a couple colonial hotspots were also discovered. One small spot tucked away in an unsuspecting corner was quite productive with most finds dating to the late 17[SUP]th[/SUP] to early 18[SUP]th[/SUP] centuries, and a large number of early buckles and leather ornaments were recovered there, but almost no buttons and absolutely zero coins. That was a huge disappointment as this spot had “cob” or “hammered” written all over it. It did not help that most of the area was covered with a very dense, tall clover thanks to the recent spell of warm weather, and this made it extremely difficult if not impossible to swing the coil close to the dirt. So I’m sure we left some nice ones in the ground, but we may never get a chance to recover them as the property will be under contract in the next few days and may become off limits forever.
In addition to the colonial goodies, I was able to stumble across 3 really nice military buttons in random locations while roaming around the fields. The best of these was a rare Hillsborough Military Academy (NC) button in great condition with its gilt almost totally intact and a stand-up shank. This button dates to 1859-60, and most of the cadets at this school joined the Confederate Army when the war started. The others included a War of 1812 era artillery button (“eagle on cannon”) plus an exquisite early navy button identified as Albert’s NA86A7. It includes the backmark “Wise, Bielby, Hyde & Co” plus No 1/Extra Fine, and was produced in Birmingham England around 1820-30. The gilt on this example is about as good as it gets for a dug button.
I did chase a deep iron signal in the middle of the 17[SUP]th[/SUP] century site and found not only a nice colonial hoe, but the base to a very early shaft and globe bottle, or at least from one of the transitional varieties which preceded the true onion forms. These are extremely hard to find and only at the very earliest sites. A second hoe with a long, narrow shape was also found nearby and is likely a 17[SUP]th[/SUP] century grubbing hoe, and it was fused to the bottom of the bottle base so they were obviously discarded at the same time. Early occupation of this site was also confirmed with the recovery a 4 clay pipe stems with a bore diameter of 7/64s” which generally equates to the 1650 to 1680 period. A wide assortment of finds spanning nearly 300 years were recovered at this interesting and diverse site, and many are shown in the collection of images below. I was obviously very pleased with the results of this hunt, but it was disappointing that I was unable to put a colonial coin of any type under my coil. But I know they’re hiding somewhere in that deep clover. Time for the ole plywood trick ....
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Attachments
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buckles1.jpg -
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HMA button.jpg -
hoes1.jpg -
shaft and globe3.jpg -
lead items1.jpg -
navy btn2.jpg -
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coins1.jpg -
buttons all.jpg -
misc1.jpg
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