mid 1800s school house property.. SILVER Spoon?! SCROTAL bell...

[DiggityDiggity]

mid 1800s school house property.. SILVER Spoon?! Sleigh bell...

So, I obtained permission from a very nice fellow who owns a shop next to the site of an old school house that has been long since destroyed. The ground was super soft digging but since I was finding 70's beer cans 6 to 8 inches in the ground, I believe the majority of the good stuff is down deep in the depths of the unreachable. My AT pro tried hard but most of the property just screams iron with very little high squeakers. Here are the notables...

Silver Spoon. It says pure coin on the back. Does this mean 100% silver? If yes, will it depreciate the value if I give it a nice polish in Wright's? Also, if any of you can figure out what it says in cursive on the handle or what it says on the back just before 'PURE COIN" I will give you 10,420 internet cookies.



The sleigh bell still has a jingle in it's jangle too!!! I'm guessing early 1900's??



What do you suppose this pin signifies? Still has the pin on the back. I'm guessing mid 1900s?



I'll be going back to the site in a few days to slow it right down and grid hard. I'm hoping some of the deep stuff starts talking. HH!

 

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[Tpmetal]

coin silver is a silver copper alloy, don't remember the percentages and was put on stuff somewhere starting in the 1830s. the crotal bell is of a construction I have never dug before. all my sites are pre 1930s, so my best guess would be possibly sometime after that? looks machine stamped and rolled the metal edge together around the bottom piece after inserting the dinger thing. someone with more knowledge of metal manufacturing history could probably give a date range.

 

[A2coins]

Cool spoon and bell wow that's a site I would love to hunt. Keep rippin and posting my friend. Tommy

 

[bologna321]

Coin silver should be about 90% silver 10% copper.

Nice finds!

 

[Steve in PA]

Good luck on your return trip. That bell is a sleigh bell. Early 1900s sounds right.

 

[CRUSADER]

Not being naughty, but its not a crotal bell its a sleigh bell.

 

[Digger RJ]

Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[Hawks88]

Cool old spoon. I like the sleigh bell too. Congrats

 

[DiggityDiggity]

Thanks a lot guys. I just edited the post so it says 'sleigh' bell. Noob mistake.

 

[RVRoamer73]

Nice sleigh bell. Congrats on the find.

 

[lenmac65]

I thought a sleigh bell was a crotal bell; now scrotal is something different altogether Whatever the proper term, it's a nice find. Congrats.

 

[DiggityDiggity]

I have a little more work to do before its done but she's shining a hell of a lot brighter now. So neat to think the last time it was shined was probably 150 years ago! I was able to decipher the silversmith maker. His name was Newell Matson, 1815 - 1887. He practiced in western NY, Ohio, and finished his career in Chicago. He was pretty prominent in his time. I can safely estimate that this was one of his earlier pieces because he practiced relatively close to the person named on the spoon between 1847 - 1850.

I imagine a youngster taking one of his mom's fancyware spoons to school with his lunch only to lose it in the yard during recess. lol At least it has a home again...

 

[DocBeav]

Crotal Bell/Sleigh Bell..........but what it is NOT lol is a "Scrotal" bell as the title says.....lol Whole different word with that "S" lol

 

[ecmjamsit]

New meaning to that Chuck Berry song...My Ding A Ling. Coin silver is usually .800 pure

 

[DiggityDiggity]

sorry, docbeav it was a typo. it should have been "scrotal balls"

 

[DocBeav]

sorry, docbeav it was a typo. it should have been "scrotal balls"

LOL Nice one! I know how it goes, once you create the post, you can edit the text in the body but not the title.

 

[WG2020]

Diggity, nice hunt, I really like the spoon - most of the spoons I find are really trashed. Though I am glad you didn’t show the scrotal bell that was highlighted in the title of your thread...not sure all of our female board members would have appreciated you laying it out to be photographed...LOL...good luck with your hunts...Walt

 

[Inspector]

Nice hunt, that's a very cool spoon & nice research, the bell is a style I haven't seen before, congrats on the saves & BOL on your return to the site

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Well done, congrats!