paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
- 825
- 6,780
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I'm absolutely floored; I would have never expected to find so much at this site! Just a little background first: I met with a local historian on Saturday who was a friend of a friend. We had an absolutely great time swapping maps and talking about local lore and stories. He has this fantastic hand-drawn map from 1714 that has just 5 houses on it and the rest is wilderness and hills. Super cool to look at, but probably not much use for finding old sites. 
After awhile he walked me around his property which is a beautiful early 1800's house and across the street is an 1830's barn. In all honesty I had no intention of detecting that particular day, but offhand he mentions that there's oral history that a 1750's house was next to where his barn stands now. He hasn't been able to find any official record of it with the county deeds office though, so it's just supposition at this point. I smile and say: I can probably help with that! 
A few minutes later I'm detecting the small patch that's was already mowed (a good portion is still under tall grass) and within minutes out pops a Georgian shoe buckle fragment! Next an iron reigns guide, and third is a CT copper. At this point I know something was here and ceramic and brick fragments in the ground are also a good sign, so I start a grid and the next three hours are pure heaven!
Within the first hour I turn a plug over to see this:
I swear; my very first thought was that I had found a pewter counterfeit so I held it up to the sun and the little bit of silver around the edges gave it away. Genuine silver 8 reales and it is a monster!
I'd never seen one in person before, much less held one in my hands, and I have to say they are super thick. I can't imagine how they managed to cut these into quarters and eighths with such accuracy.
The dirt was a little strange since it wasn't just clinging to the coin, it was well cemented on there. I didn't mess with it in the field and when I got home I did some research here on the forum and that firm crud buildup seems to happen to many of these 8 reales. I tried the long soap/water soak and that didn't do much so I eventually used the dilute lemon juice method and very slowly q-tipped away the crud. By constantly swapping q-tips I was able to avoid scratching the silver with captured dirt. I did leave some crud on the obverse that was particularly stubborn but I didn't want an obviously cleaned look. I think it turned out pretty well though and the details are all very sharp. It must not have circulated much before being lost.
I found a tremendous number of coppers for such a small area. Also very much of note was a King George hat-trick!
The King George and King George II are pretty well worn, but the former does have a visible date of 1724 which is my new oldest dated coin! The KGIII may be 1778 and, despite having good details, it is quite thin so possibly a contemporary counterfeit. It actually wasn't the only counterfeit coin too. I found what appears to be a pewter cast of a silver half-dollar:
A good portion of "United" appears clearly around an edge, but the rest is completely gone. No trace of a design or more lettering. Strangely there's also no trace of edge reeding and no coins from the mid 1800's at the site so I'm inclined to think it would have been a counterfeit draped bust half. Too bad it wasn't genuine.
That's okay though; the two state coppers came out of the ground in stunning shape and I couldn't ask for more than that! The CT copper was the first coin to pop out and some careful toothpicking revealed this:
The design on both sides is strong and the date, 1788, is very clear. I believe it's a Miller 11-G which makes is scarce so that's a bonus! The Vermont copper really takes the cake though:
Right out of the plug it was in great shape and some very careful toothpicking with no water or peroxide brought the details out the rest of the way. Its definitely a Ryder 6 which is common, but the preservation on both sides is exquisite. I'm not sure I could ever hope to dig a better one and I absolutely love the design of these coins so I'm happy!
The dig was a blur, but there were plenty of good relics between the awesome coins. Of course I turned up a bunch of buttons including two really nice dandies and a great pewter.
There were also some buckle fragments, but no whole buckles this time:
The one on the right is the first dig fragment. I also eventually turned up the tongue piece and the broken tack buckle with the chape. The barrel tap key was a nice find since it's only my third ever:
I also managed to find two dropped pistol balls.
I think all the ones I have found before had been fired so these were a nice change of pace. I actually found quite a bit of melted metal blobs, some lead, but others of pewter and one of brass. Given the amount of coinage in the small area I wonder if this was a small-scale foundry.
There are two mystery pieces that I'm hoping people can help me with. The first is this strange brass ball. The metal is quite thin and there are no work marks or seams. I found out accidentally that it's bell metal and it has a very nice sound to it. The second relic is a small brass piece that looks to be quite old and is almost familiar, but I can't quite place it:
I still can't believe how much was in such a small space. I'm definitely going back, although there's not much rain in the forecast so I may have to wait until we get just a little and that way I don't ruin the grass. The ground was hard-packed dust and gravel and it's on a little rise so I don't think the ground ever stays wet for long and that's why the coins were so well preserved. It does make signal isolation hard and I plan on gridding with a couple of detector setting to make sure I don't miss anything. Also in the Fall when the grass flattens the site will more than double in size so I can't wait to get to that ground too. With so many firsts for me in such a small spot; who knows what else could be hiding!
Update
I played around a bit with lighting and managed a group shot of the coins. It's a little tough to get the detail on all seven to show at the same angle, but this one turned out okay with full sunlight.
After awhile he walked me around his property which is a beautiful early 1800's house and across the street is an 1830's barn. In all honesty I had no intention of detecting that particular day, but offhand he mentions that there's oral history that a 1750's house was next to where his barn stands now. He hasn't been able to find any official record of it with the county deeds office though, so it's just supposition at this point. I smile and say: I can probably help with that! A few minutes later I'm detecting the small patch that's was already mowed (a good portion is still under tall grass) and within minutes out pops a Georgian shoe buckle fragment! Next an iron reigns guide, and third is a CT copper. At this point I know something was here and ceramic and brick fragments in the ground are also a good sign, so I start a grid and the next three hours are pure heaven!
Within the first hour I turn a plug over to see this:
I swear; my very first thought was that I had found a pewter counterfeit so I held it up to the sun and the little bit of silver around the edges gave it away. Genuine silver 8 reales and it is a monster!
I'd never seen one in person before, much less held one in my hands, and I have to say they are super thick. I can't imagine how they managed to cut these into quarters and eighths with such accuracy.
The dirt was a little strange since it wasn't just clinging to the coin, it was well cemented on there. I didn't mess with it in the field and when I got home I did some research here on the forum and that firm crud buildup seems to happen to many of these 8 reales. I tried the long soap/water soak and that didn't do much so I eventually used the dilute lemon juice method and very slowly q-tipped away the crud. By constantly swapping q-tips I was able to avoid scratching the silver with captured dirt. I did leave some crud on the obverse that was particularly stubborn but I didn't want an obviously cleaned look. I think it turned out pretty well though and the details are all very sharp. It must not have circulated much before being lost.
I found a tremendous number of coppers for such a small area. Also very much of note was a King George hat-trick!
The King George and King George II are pretty well worn, but the former does have a visible date of 1724 which is my new oldest dated coin! The KGIII may be 1778 and, despite having good details, it is quite thin so possibly a contemporary counterfeit. It actually wasn't the only counterfeit coin too. I found what appears to be a pewter cast of a silver half-dollar:
A good portion of "United" appears clearly around an edge, but the rest is completely gone. No trace of a design or more lettering. Strangely there's also no trace of edge reeding and no coins from the mid 1800's at the site so I'm inclined to think it would have been a counterfeit draped bust half. Too bad it wasn't genuine.
That's okay though; the two state coppers came out of the ground in stunning shape and I couldn't ask for more than that! The CT copper was the first coin to pop out and some careful toothpicking revealed this:
The design on both sides is strong and the date, 1788, is very clear. I believe it's a Miller 11-G which makes is scarce so that's a bonus! The Vermont copper really takes the cake though:
Right out of the plug it was in great shape and some very careful toothpicking with no water or peroxide brought the details out the rest of the way. Its definitely a Ryder 6 which is common, but the preservation on both sides is exquisite. I'm not sure I could ever hope to dig a better one and I absolutely love the design of these coins so I'm happy!
The dig was a blur, but there were plenty of good relics between the awesome coins. Of course I turned up a bunch of buttons including two really nice dandies and a great pewter.
There were also some buckle fragments, but no whole buckles this time:
The one on the right is the first dig fragment. I also eventually turned up the tongue piece and the broken tack buckle with the chape. The barrel tap key was a nice find since it's only my third ever:
I also managed to find two dropped pistol balls.
I think all the ones I have found before had been fired so these were a nice change of pace. I actually found quite a bit of melted metal blobs, some lead, but others of pewter and one of brass. Given the amount of coinage in the small area I wonder if this was a small-scale foundry.
There are two mystery pieces that I'm hoping people can help me with. The first is this strange brass ball. The metal is quite thin and there are no work marks or seams. I found out accidentally that it's bell metal and it has a very nice sound to it. The second relic is a small brass piece that looks to be quite old and is almost familiar, but I can't quite place it:
I still can't believe how much was in such a small space. I'm definitely going back, although there's not much rain in the forecast so I may have to wait until we get just a little and that way I don't ruin the grass. The ground was hard-packed dust and gravel and it's on a little rise so I don't think the ground ever stays wet for long and that's why the coins were so well preserved. It does make signal isolation hard and I plan on gridding with a couple of detector setting to make sure I don't miss anything. Also in the Fall when the grass flattens the site will more than double in size so I can't wait to get to that ground too. With so many firsts for me in such a small spot; who knows what else could be hiding!
Update
I played around a bit with lighting and managed a group shot of the coins. It's a little tough to get the detail on all seven to show at the same angle, but this one turned out okay with full sunlight.
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