paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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I managed a short hunt on Friday at the cellar hole that produced all those civil war tokens. The warm week melted all the snow but the ground was still pretty solid in most places. I managed a good number of relics that I had missed in iron infested spots so I'm sure there's still more even after this hunt:
The DM & Co padlock was a surprise since it's a rare find for me and this is the second from this site. I may try tumbling this one to see how it looks and to decide if that's the way to go with future padlock finds.
I also found a number of buttons including one tombac that still has an almost mirror finish. It's crazy how well those tombacs do in the ground compared to the other alloys:
The real find of the day though was a 2-coin pocket spill. I had just dug and removed a chunk of iron and I re-scanned the area when a tight 78 signal turned up. I pulled out a copper-nickel IHP and was about the refill the hole when I got a beep in the leaf litter. It must have fallen out of the dirt and it took me a while to find it since it was so small it stuck to a leaf and I kept shifting it around. I thought it was a trime at first, but a quick rinse revealed a seated half dime!
Believe it or not with all my hunts this is only my third seated coin. It ended up being in great shape and after cleaning it turns out that both coins are 1859 which is quite the coincidence! I looked it up and the 1859-P half dime is a scarce date with only 340,000 minted. That's less than half as many as there were 1877 IHPs, but there are a bunch of ultra-rare half dime dates so this one is actually not worth all that much. Still, it's in fantastic shape and any US silver from around the civil war is unusual so I'm happy. I do hope this means there's more silver hiding around this cellar!
There was one mystery piece that I'm hoping you guys can help me with. It's very intriguing and I haven't seen anything like it before:
The material is brass and two loops on the back are intact while it looks like a third loop was broken. It reminds me or a cloak clasp but I've never seen one in the shape of a fist and the wrist has a chain mail like motif to it. If anyone knows what it is I'm very curious to hear.
The night after this hunt the ground froze up again so I'll be out of commission for a while. Hopefully we have an early spring and I can get back out there!
The DM & Co padlock was a surprise since it's a rare find for me and this is the second from this site. I may try tumbling this one to see how it looks and to decide if that's the way to go with future padlock finds.
I also found a number of buttons including one tombac that still has an almost mirror finish. It's crazy how well those tombacs do in the ground compared to the other alloys:
The real find of the day though was a 2-coin pocket spill. I had just dug and removed a chunk of iron and I re-scanned the area when a tight 78 signal turned up. I pulled out a copper-nickel IHP and was about the refill the hole when I got a beep in the leaf litter. It must have fallen out of the dirt and it took me a while to find it since it was so small it stuck to a leaf and I kept shifting it around. I thought it was a trime at first, but a quick rinse revealed a seated half dime!
Believe it or not with all my hunts this is only my third seated coin. It ended up being in great shape and after cleaning it turns out that both coins are 1859 which is quite the coincidence! I looked it up and the 1859-P half dime is a scarce date with only 340,000 minted. That's less than half as many as there were 1877 IHPs, but there are a bunch of ultra-rare half dime dates so this one is actually not worth all that much. Still, it's in fantastic shape and any US silver from around the civil war is unusual so I'm happy. I do hope this means there's more silver hiding around this cellar!
There was one mystery piece that I'm hoping you guys can help me with. It's very intriguing and I haven't seen anything like it before:
The material is brass and two loops on the back are intact while it looks like a third loop was broken. It reminds me or a cloak clasp but I've never seen one in the shape of a fist and the wrist has a chain mail like motif to it. If anyone knows what it is I'm very curious to hear.
The night after this hunt the ground froze up again so I'll be out of commission for a while. Hopefully we have an early spring and I can get back out there!
Upvote
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I think at the moment my Spanish silver to seated ratio is 3:1 which seemed bonkers, but I guess it's just what ground you tend to cover.
