Spanish Silver, and a colonial Apothecary weight! Wow!

[Scrappy]

A quick post before I hit the sack. I went to an area I call Basstards of Brambles meadows. It's a place only me and the crew can go.

I found lots of buttons and such but they're soaking (not pictured)

A 1789 Spanish 1/2 reale (note the Carolous IV vs. Carolous IIII). Also, the double holing is killer. One was filled, only to have another put in it.



It other keeper and a KILLER find was an apothecary weight, 3 Drachms. (Thanks Bill D. for the ID). Looks to be 18th century from my research.



I went ahead and did a light zap in the electrolysis tank. I'm not a fan of zapping anything but iron, but I otherwise wouldn't have been able to make out the markings. Both sides are marked.

An undug example



Curious about apothecary weights? Here's a tidbit:

https://www.britannica.com/science/apothecaries-weight

I'll post the buttons and bits tomorrow once cleaned.

UPDATED: some buttons incl. a nice folded colonial crosshatch, a winder, and some Indians including a roached 1871 and 1872



I'm glad I was able to add this picture before my post turned in to a pumpkin. Tnets 24 hour edit rule should GO!

Good digs and good luck

Steve

 

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[Scrappy]

Great finds. Never seen a silver holed, filled in, then holed again...why wouldn't they just hole where it was already holed? lol The weight script is really cool. Congrats bud!

I keep coming back to the same question. Assuming one happened before the other. What's interesting about finds is we try to put ourselves into the "headspace" of people before us. I think views and opinions have changed greatly, but critical thinking has always existed. A purpose must have been served with the second hole instead of popping out the first.

 

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[Scrappy]

A two holed Spanish silver, kind of cool to find it with one filled and one not, probably will never be able to determine the story behind that coin.. I found the same weight eons ago, I believe my notes have it as a 2 Dram weight. roughly 120 grains I believe... Don

Hello Don! I doubt I'll ever have an answer, but I can at least have some fun with the subject. Next time some of my detecting buddies are over (drinking), I'll broach the subject of the double hole. That'll be a heck of a good show. Lol.

I'll look at the denomination. I was so busy looking at styles that perhaps I just assumed the 3 meant 3-Drachms. Thanks for looking

 

[Scrappy]

I wish I had a posey ring. It came from the Pomander and two cobs site

Haha, yep I meant pomander. So yours clearly came from a solid colonial site it seems. Not to say an argument can't be raised about the weights being used for long periods, but yours was likely a period drop. I only bring this up because I'm trying to nail down a date range for the weight. Do you have a picture?

 

[Cal_Cobra]

That's what I'm talking about, nice work Steve!!!

I need to move to Maryland....

hh,
Cal

 

[toasted]

Haha, yep I meant pomander. So yours clearly came from a solid colonial site it seems. Not to say an argument can't be raised about the weights being used for long periods, but yours was likely a period drop. I only bring this up because I'm trying to nail down a date range for the weight. Do you have a picture?

Previous post had a pic

 

[Z.K.]

That weight is the bomb.

 

[Scrappy]

Previous post had a pic

Haha, so you did. It only showed up when I looked on my computer. Anywho, sure looks like an extremely close match and thanks for sharing. What do you think the date range on your site was?

 

[Scrappy]

That weight is the bomb.

Da Bomb right?! My wife has been looking at me like I lost my damn mind staring at a green square under a lamp.

 

[toasted]

Haha, so you did. It only showed up when I looked on my computer. Anywho, sure looks like an extremely close match and thanks for sharing. What do you think the date range on your site was?

Hard to say as I have found a little bit of everything through 1900s. Town was founded around 1708 and the bulk of the finds seem to be mid 18th century. Its hard to find much late 18th early 19th stuff around here. My area seemed to decline somewhat after revolution

 

[scruggs]

Way to go!!! Nicely done!!! Keep it up!!!

 

[Silver Tree Chaser]

Scrappy - Another great post. Holed, filed, holed in what order and why? That's a tough one to figure out. The apothecary weight is awesome. I found one rounded specimen a few years back and only came across one nearly identical match in regards to engraved numbers for the weight - it had come off Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship.

 

[Scrappy]

Scrappy - Another great post. Holed, filed, holed in what order and why? That's a tough one to figure out. The apothecary weight is awesome. I found one rounded specimen a few years back and only came across one nearly identical match in regards to engraved numbers for the weight - it had come off Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship.

That sounds like a killer specimen you have. Got a picture? I'm still hoping for a coin weight with a crown mark on it someday. A couple years ago I was able to see a couple of Bill D's 17th century weights in person. Wowsers!!!

 

[TheGreatNorth]

Nice finds! That weight is really interesting! Can't beat buttons, coins, and relics all in one hunt. You guys really kill it down there. Thanks for sharing.

 

[hunting deer]

Do you ever not find anything great? Just kidding!! Great finds! Congrats!

 

[tinpan]

Scrappy - Another great post. Holed, filed, holed in what order and why? That's a tough one to figure out. The apothecary weight is awesome. I found one rounded specimen a few years back and only came across one nearly identical match in regards to engraved numbers for the weight - it had come off Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship.

Hi, The first apothecary weight to be a lawful weight was in the year 1878 under the Weights And Measures Act of the British Empire.his was the first apothecary weight to be connected to the crown. Considered the rarest with a Victoria Crown on it I have one found in the garden of the family home of one Dr Richard Bloomfeild Rees. By the way latter in life he had afternoon tea with the english king.. Scappy your weight was made and used in the 1900 s Found in gold rush towns and i have 3 . Patients and their numbers did not start untill the the 1850,. TP

 

[Scrappy]

Hi, The first apothecary weight to be a lawful weight was in the year 1878 under the Weights And Measures Act of the British Empire.his was the first apothecary weight to be connected to the crown. Considered the rarest with a Victoria Crown on it I have one found in the garden of the family home of one Dr Richard Bloomfeild Rees. By the way latter in life he had afternoon tea with the english king.. Scappy your weight was made and used in the 1900 s Found in gold rush towns and i have 3 . Patients and their numbers did not start untill the the 1850,. TP

Your information is flawed and incredibly generalized, to the point that I won't waste time responding. Some of the best minds in the hobby have responded to this thread, so best you educate yourself further before "removing all doubt" as they say.

G'day!

 

[Gridwalker306]

Ooh Myyyy! Great hunt Steve! I love the holed, filled, holed Spanish. The weight is really a
b!tchin find!

 

[Silver Tree Chaser]

Hi, The first apothecary weight to be a lawful weight was in the year 1878 under the Weights And Measures Act of the British Empire.his was the first apothecary weight to be connected to the crown. Considered the rarest with a Victoria Crown on it I have one found in the garden of the family home of one Dr Richard Bloomfeild Rees. By the way latter in life he had afternoon tea with the english king.. Scappy your weight was made and used in the 1900 s Found in gold rush towns and i have 3 . Patients and their numbers did not start untill the the 1850,. TP

TP - Just to clarify - the weight that I mentioned finding in my post is not necessarily an apothecary weight. I only know that it bears a close resemblance to the weight found in excavating Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's ship. I plan to sooner or later contact the folks working on the QAR project, as their specimen is the only one I've seen that resembles what I recovered.

Here's the weight I found at a site that produced finds ranging from the mid-1600's to mid-1800.


Here's the weight found on QAR with a link https://www.qaronline.org/conservation/artifacts/tools-and-instruments/brass-scale-weight.

 

[tinpan]

Your information is flawed and incredibly generalized, to the point that I won't waste time responding. Some of the best minds in the hobby have responded to this thread, so best you educate yourself further before "removing all doubt" as they say.

G'day!

View attachment 1485323

Hi one of the weights like yours i found in the yard of a house built in 1860 also found was half a coin bracelet and one of the holed silver coins is a Geo 3 Morgan & Rees silver sixpence token. The house was only owned by one doctor welsh born Dr richard Bloomfeild Rees.. So i have a hole silver coin and a weight deemed by you as colonial but found one site where no white person ever walked before 1852. Any way talking about geo 3 silver coins i have 20 you? TP

 

[tinpan]

Hi There is more than one opinion on any point of history but as usual narrow mined always discredit others based n hear say TP