DownNDirty
Bronze Member
I have been continuing to explore my new field permissions in search of more Colonial home sites, and my luck has continued. The short drive south of my home has paid off well lately. Dirtstalker (Allen) joined me in scouting a field that I had high hopes for and we weren't disappointed. Ten minutes after we got started I found a flat button and some pottery and brick fragments, which told us we were onto a home site; this one turned out to be early to mid 1800s. Other than a few flat buttons the finds were few but I did dig a small trash pit that turned up some interesting pottery.
Late in the day Allen being the bird dog that he is located a nearby home site that was loaded with late 1800s/early 1900s targets. The first target I dug turned out to be a two cent piece that has seen its better days
My last find of the day was a soldier's dog tag that dates to the late 1930s (thanks DCMatt for the id)
Allen scored an interesting cut one cent token from Camp Manufacturing Company, a predecessor to Union Camp
All in all it was a fun day; here is my take
A few days later I explored a high spot in other permission field where I had seen a few pottery sherds. Again it didn't take long before I was finding flat buttons without back marks and other signs of an 18th century home. Score again! The buttons kept coming, as did a nice etched brass cuff link and other goodies
Then last Saturday I invited VMIDigger (Jon) to come up and "share the wealth" as they say. First thing in the morning we did some scouting in a huge field but other than a musket ball we came up empty handed. But there is a LOT of acreage to cover there. Not wanting Jon to go home empty handed I took him to the 18th century home site that I found on the last hunt. He was not disappointed as he dug two very old coins.
My luck continued when I dug a very old brass ring. Hard to tell if is was made in the 1700s or 1800s, but I was happy to recover such an old ring.
Then a few minutes later something really cool happened. I picked up a very strong brass signal and dug one of my new favorite relics-part of an 18th century sword guard! As soon as I knew what I had I looked in Jon's direction to get his attention and he yelled "I dug a one real!" So we compared our simultaneously dug stellar finds.
Here is the sword guard
Thanks (again) to DCMatt I learned that this likely came from a French "short sword" also known as a "court sword" or "dress sword." There is bust on either side-one of a woman with a crown over her head (she is not wearing it) and the other is a man without a crown. Hard to determine the identity of the busts-any guesses? One possibility is King Louis XV and his wife Marie Leszczynska, which would date it to the period of 1725-1768.
To finish off the day we revisited the home site where I found a Connecticut copper. In the adjoining woods I dug this cut 1838 Seated Liberty half dime
This was just the second year that the seated half dime was minted. It's in great condition (other than the fact that it was cut in half). I've found cut reales and cut half pennies before but never a cut US coin. Here are my finds for the day
...and the saga continues...
Late in the day Allen being the bird dog that he is located a nearby home site that was loaded with late 1800s/early 1900s targets. The first target I dug turned out to be a two cent piece that has seen its better days
My last find of the day was a soldier's dog tag that dates to the late 1930s (thanks DCMatt for the id)
Allen scored an interesting cut one cent token from Camp Manufacturing Company, a predecessor to Union Camp
All in all it was a fun day; here is my take
A few days later I explored a high spot in other permission field where I had seen a few pottery sherds. Again it didn't take long before I was finding flat buttons without back marks and other signs of an 18th century home. Score again! The buttons kept coming, as did a nice etched brass cuff link and other goodies
Then last Saturday I invited VMIDigger (Jon) to come up and "share the wealth" as they say. First thing in the morning we did some scouting in a huge field but other than a musket ball we came up empty handed. But there is a LOT of acreage to cover there. Not wanting Jon to go home empty handed I took him to the 18th century home site that I found on the last hunt. He was not disappointed as he dug two very old coins.
My luck continued when I dug a very old brass ring. Hard to tell if is was made in the 1700s or 1800s, but I was happy to recover such an old ring.
Then a few minutes later something really cool happened. I picked up a very strong brass signal and dug one of my new favorite relics-part of an 18th century sword guard! As soon as I knew what I had I looked in Jon's direction to get his attention and he yelled "I dug a one real!" So we compared our simultaneously dug stellar finds.
Here is the sword guard
Thanks (again) to DCMatt I learned that this likely came from a French "short sword" also known as a "court sword" or "dress sword." There is bust on either side-one of a woman with a crown over her head (she is not wearing it) and the other is a man without a crown. Hard to determine the identity of the busts-any guesses? One possibility is King Louis XV and his wife Marie Leszczynska, which would date it to the period of 1725-1768.
To finish off the day we revisited the home site where I found a Connecticut copper. In the adjoining woods I dug this cut 1838 Seated Liberty half dime
This was just the second year that the seated half dime was minted. It's in great condition (other than the fact that it was cut in half). I've found cut reales and cut half pennies before but never a cut US coin. Here are my finds for the day
...and the saga continues...
Last edited:
Upvote
42
? A half dime is already an incredibly tiny coin, cut it in half and it's only a matter of time before you lose it, but I guess you found it...
