Poor Richard's shoe

xcopperstax

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Back to my colonial spot in the woods. I had just gotten out of work
and had a couple of hrs to hunt at my favorite place to go lately. Anxiety was running high because darkness was on its way. One of my first targets that sounded pretty good turned out to
be a horseshoe that was locked in a combination of roots rock and dirt. I spent quite a while trying to recover it. In the end it came out of the ground in two pieces as I impatiently pulled it out. Oh well let that be a lesson to slow it down and be a little more careful. As Poor Richard said: "haste makes waste." 5 minutes later...The next target was a jumpy signal that could have been anything so I gambled and jammed my shovel into the earth. Roots.... again. The frustration was back... better slow it down buddy... out popped a perfect large dandy! It was an exact match to the one I had found about a month earlier. Shank intact and it had evaded my wild digging . It's not me it's the shovel! My day was absolutely made! I kept swinging and after another 5 minutes on the side of the hill I got a decent higher tone signal. Let's dig! Carefully of course. Out popped a perfect buckle with a small root going through the middle. I reached in and broke the root. This wasn't just any buckle it was a colonial tongue and chape shoe buckle! It was completely intact! The theory is that it was worn by a member of the upper class and was probably thrown out when the style changed. A person of more meager means probably would have worn it until it broke. Like Poor Richard also said "waste not want not." These things were important and sometimes when people died they left shoe buckled to people. To me it was a small miracle to find this artifact complete as it escaped the ravages of daily use, time, plows, roots, and my shovel. 5 minutes later a ways down the hill I found a toasted us large cent. I believe it's a draped bust but who knows the soil at this spot is super harsh on coppers. What could be better? Sharing my finds with my hunt buddies who were off in another area of the woods. A member of my club who I consider to be an authority on this stuff dated the buckle to around 1770! This is the only shoe accessory I have ever been excited about! Nothing is free though: while chipping the dirt (it flaked off like paint) off the buckle with a toothpick I got a nice piece of corrosion flicked right into my eye. That night I felt the telltale itch of poison ivy. A couple days later while eating breakfast I had it on the table to admire it. Not realizing it was there my fiancé dropped a full bag of granola cereal right on it. I almost died. Thankfully it was still all together! I said some bad words but I forgave her! Who knows maybe the owner of this shoe spent some time kicking it with Ben Franklin himself! IMG_6420.JPG IMG_6416.JPG IMG_6417.JPG IMG_6418.JPG
 

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Ahab8

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That’s a really nice complete shoe buckle. One of my favorite relics to find
 

dirtdigginfool

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What a fine specimen! Wow, it certainly is preserved...I cannot imagine the workmanship that went into producing that by hand. Congrats on an extraordinary find! Ddf.
 

Steve in PA

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Those are two real fine 18th Century relics!
 

ShovelinDave

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Very nice...they both are a couple beauties. I would be just as happy as you are after finding them. I too find myself looking at relics several days later :icon_thumright:. Congrats to you Mister.
 

A2coins

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Thats really nice I dont see those much
 

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xcopperstax

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That’s a really nice complete shoe buckle. One of my favorite relics to find

Thank you! The funny thing is that a year or two ago I wouldn't have even known what this was. How many completes have you found in your days?
 

Ahab8

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Thank you! The funny thing is that a year or two ago I wouldn't have even known what this was. How many completes have you found in your days?

I have found around 10 complete and another 15 or so complete frames without the tongue and chape
 

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xcopperstax

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What a fine specimen! Wow, it certainly is preserved...I cannot imagine the workmanship that went into producing that by hand. Congrats on an extraordinary find! Ddf.

Thank you for the words! If you look closely at the back side of it you can see grind marks. I can imagine that they had some kind of stone grind wheel that was powered by water or maybe even by foot. My guess is that these were made in England but who knows. I am sure there are other examples of this exact buckle out there but I haven't seen any.
 

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xcopperstax

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Very nice...they both are a couple beauties. I would be just as happy as you are after finding them. I too find myself looking at relics several days later :icon_thumright:. Congrats to you Mister.

Thank you very much! I spend a good time looking at my stuff and thinking about it after I've found it and done a little research. Call me crazy but I can almost relive finding it when I think about it!
 

Ahab8

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Thank you! The funny thing is that a year or two ago I wouldn't have even known what this was. How many completes have you found in your days?

Yeah it’s a lot of fun to learn about these colonial relics and coins. I too had no idea what I had found when my first shoe buckle came out. This forum is very helpful with lots of very knowledgeable folks.
 

Trezurehunter

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That is one heck of a buckle. What a great relic. Our chances are very slim at best of finding one of those here in Illinois. I think I'm going to move Northeast !
 

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xcopperstax

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That is one heck of a buckle. What a great relic. Our chances are very slim at best of finding one of those here in Illinois. I think I'm going to move Northeast !

Thank you! There's always room for one more!
 

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xcopperstax

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Yeah it’s a lot of fun to learn about these colonial relics and coins. I too had no idea what I had found when my first shoe buckle came out. This forum is very helpful with lots of very knowledgeable folks.

That's amazing that you have found that many! Any matching pairs? Of all your buckles what is your favorite? Did you find your buckles in trash piles, or fields? Sorry for all the questions!
 

Hawks88

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That buckle is in beautiful condition. Congrats on the amazing find.
 

Shakakka

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Hey, nice buckle! I think I found its identical twin last year, with a little bit of silver-wash and fancy on it:

buckle.jpg

Together let's make a pair of shoes!
 

Ahab8

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That's amazing that you have found that many! Any matching pairs? Of all your buckles what is your favorite? Did you find your buckles in trash piles, or fields? Sorry for all the questions!

Happy to answer your questions....that’s how we learn on here. I enjoy your enthusiasm. I haven’t found any matching pairs. Here’s an old picture of some of the complete buckles. I’ll have to get an updated pic of all the complete ones to date. The single chape one would date to the 1600s.
ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1539196076.241423.jpg
I have found none of these from fields. The vast majority were found at colonial sites. Lots of them from cabin sites with no sign of a foundation. Just a dot on an old map and lots of swinging to find an iron patch. My favorite is this open work buckle that you can still see the hand hammering marks on
ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1539196531.694195.jpg
ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1539196563.259099.jpg
 

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xcopperstax

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Hey, nice buckle! I think I found its identical twin last year, with a little bit of silver-wash and fancy on it:

View attachment 1640876

Together let's make a pair of shoes!

Hey that is a great buckle! It's a definitely more fancy and tiny bit smaller but it is pretty close to mine! Now if only we had the shoe to go with them!
 

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xcopperstax

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Happy to answer your questions....that’s how we learn on here. I enjoy your enthusiasm. I haven’t found any matching pairs. Here’s an old picture of some of the complete buckles. I’ll have to get an updated pic of all the complete ones to date. The single chape one would date to the 1600s.
View attachment 1640908
I have found none of these from fields. The vast majority were found at colonial sites. Lots of them from cabin sites with no sign of a foundation. Just a dot on an old map and lots of swinging to find an iron patch. My favorite is this open work buckle that you can still see the hand hammering marks on
View attachment 1640910
View attachment 1640911
That is an excellent collection of buckles! There is one in the second row two in from the left that looks pretty close to mine. Though mine has that extra support bar on the tongue. It makes sense to put that on there for extra strength but I wonder when they started to add those onto them.
When I've looked for buckle images I have found a few that have that extra bar but it seems to be a bit less common. That hammered buckle looks really nice! It's funny I have found three buckle frames but the complete one really stoked the excitement! I think the reason my buckle survived was that it was on a small hill that was probably not ploughed. The area was wooded and although I believe it was farmed I don't think it was ever ploughed by modern tractors. I have yet to find anything that can be definitely attributed to the 1600's but I know it's out there! One last question: do you think the majority of these were made in Europe or did local industry have the skill and organization to produce these? Thanks again for sharing your finds and knowledge and time!!!
 

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