Stumbled on an Early Homesite: 18th Century Sailing Ship Cufflink!

paleomaxx

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Aug 14, 2016
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I was revisiting a site of mine that's about a half mile into the woods on an abandoned road. It had been well hit by many detectorists before I got there so not much around, but I figured I'd give it another shot. Targets were scarce and mostly just zinc bits so I was heading back along the road in the woods when I noticed a well about 100 feet away from the homesite along a rock wall. I swung around for a bit and found a few early buttons so I started a grid and late 1700's relics were all over the place. Then I noticed a 10' by 10' shallow depression in the ground not 15 feet from the road. It was a colonial foundation! I guess everyone was so focused on the known cellar hole that they never noticed this spot as they were walking by.

Right at the lip of the cellar hole I found this cufflink:

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It's larger than most cufflinks I've found (the last photo is next to a more typical sized one) and it was so encrusted I didn't notice a design until I started cleaning it. It took quite awhile, but I managed to tease the image out and recognized it as an 18th century ship. I hadn't heard of ship cufflinks before, but I did find a few examples online and they seem to be quite uncommon. This has been a great year for cool cufflinks!

Near to the cufflink I got a terrible signal that I dug anyways just to get it out of the ground. I thought it was a chunk of iron at first, but I could see just a hint of design in the mud so I cleaned it when I got back home and found this:

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A beautiful cast pewter knee buckle! This is only my third knee buckle and by far the most attractive. Still trying to figure out the best way to preserve the rusted remains of the workings. I don't want to remove them entirely, but they'll flake away to nothing if I don't soak it in glue or something similar. Fortunately the pewter is stable so I'm not to worried about that.

Only one coin turned up and the ground was not kind to it:

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It's a KGIII half penny and non-regal judging by the weight, but that's about all I can get from it. I did find what I think is a token and it's quite intriguing. I'm really hoping someone on here recognizes it because I'm sure that it's old and I would love to find out more about it:

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It's quite thin and what's interesting is you can see the toolmark from where the "S" was stamped into it, but not the "C." Any thoughts on it?

There were of course a bunch of buttons around. Nothing military, but some nicely designed ones:

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This may be my new favorite tombac. The design is great and it's absolutely perfect with the shank fully intact. The dandy has an interesting floral pattern too.

Here's another odd piece. The front is silvered brass while the back is pewter filled. Too small to be a martingale heart, but possibly still an adornment for horse tack.

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There were also a number of melted brass and copper pieces around including one huge honking blob of copper:

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The piece on the ruler is the handle from a barrel tap and it's blistered like they were trying to recycle it but stopped before it fully melted. The hinge is blobbed towards the bottom, but they stopped before that fully melted too. Possibly a small charcoal fueled foundry?

Here's the rest of the haul from the site:

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Nothing out of this world, but some great pieces and I love that everyone has been walking past it until now. I'll have to retrace my steps on some other old roads and see if there are similar spots still hiding! :laughing7:
 

Upvote 28

Whyme

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Aug 22, 2007
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I like everything you've found! The craftsmanship is great! That button is really nice and that cuff-link is awesome! Congrats! :icon_thumleft:
 

grasshopper

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Aug 13, 2007
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Great group of early finds!! That SC coin is intriguing....
 

A2coins

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Wow thanks for the great post those are really good saves a Awesome job
 

Oct 5, 2014
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Very interesting hunt, congrats! :occasion14:
 

xcopperstax

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Great finds and great story. That cufflink is awesome! Looks like it was a pretty fun hunt!
 

CRUSADER

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We have seen a couple of ships posted but they are pretty scarce. CONGRATS

The counter-stamped 'SC' looks like a very worn halfpenny.
 

RVRoamer73

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Awesome find on the cufflink. Congrats and GL out there.
 

Donnie B from VA

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Apr 2, 2014
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Beautiful knee buckle and cuff link. Congrats!
 

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paleomaxx

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Aug 14, 2016
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very interesting. wash them than post photos

I actually almost never use water on dug relics that have a design to them. I've found it strips the patina away and you loose most of the contrast. Toothpicking and Andre's pencils for stubborn spots seems to yield the best results but some pieces, like the KGIII halfpenny, are already too far gone to bring back the details so you have to settle for a positive ID. I actually think it turned out okay, but then I've dug plenty of blank discs. :laughing7:
 

basque-man

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Looks like a great location with those finds!!!! :icon_thumright:
 

Inspector

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Sep 8, 2014
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Awesome hunt, you recovered some amazing items, very cool buckle and cufflink, congrats on all the saves
 

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