My first pocket watch!

brianc053

Hero Member
Jan 27, 2015
974
3,369
Morris County, NJ
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
3
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800
XP Deus 2
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Hi everyone. I went on two hunts today: one this morning with my son at a farmhouse that's on a map from 1853 (and apparently dates to before then), and this afternoon with a buddy at a late 1700's house.
I have to say: the morning hunt was bad. We kept digging can slaw and other modern stuff, in areas that you would expect to have older stuff. I left thinking that someone had heavily landscaped/terraformed and the "old" dirt is probably deep under newer dirt. But that was in the front of the house, and there's still the back to hunt another day.
How do you guys handle bad hunts, where your expectations (from research and from the history of the site) are high but the results are poor. Do you go back and try again?

This afternoon my buddy and I did much better. He just got the Vanquish and he's learning how to use it, so he dug a lot of iron. He did dig the spoon in the picture below, and he asked me to share it so that (hopefully) someone on TNet can offer some information. Is there any way to estimate the date of iron spoons like that one?

The rest of the finds are mine with my Equinox. The quarters are 1965 and '67, the dime is '65 (missed silver by a year twice!), and the penny is 1944.
But the exciting find was my first pocket watch! (or at least the inner parts; the case was nowhere to be found) With a gem-viewing mini-microscope I was able to pull the serial number and maker's mark: PROGRESS USA, serial number AG109616. Apparently this watch had a New York Standard movement, and a search dates the watch to between 1900 and 1920. I found a similar watch with Serial number AG20.... and it was dated as 1910, so if serial numbers are sequential then this watch would be pre-1910 (right?).

And I couldn't resist including that latch plate or whatever - he spoke to me!

Thanks for looking!

- Brian

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Upvote 15

Terry Soloman

Gold Member
May 28, 2010
19,421
30,104
White Plains, New York
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Nokta Makro Legend// Pulsedive// Minelab GPZ 7000// Vanquish 540// Minelab Pro Find 35// Dune Kraken Sandscoop// Grave Digger Tools Tombstone shovel & Sidekick digger// Bunk's Hermit Pick
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Congratulations!:hello2:
 

U.B.

Sr. Member
Apr 27, 2015
484
711
Oklahoma
Detector(s) used
AT Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Congratulations! I’ve found enough pieces, of pocket watches, to put two or three together; but never a complete one. Nice work!
 

Oct 5, 2014
31,886
35,425
Massachusetts
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Garrett: AT Pro, AT Gold & Infinium; Minelab: Explorer SE, II; Simplex; Tesoro: Tejon & Outlaw; White's: V3i
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Love the old pocket watches, congrats! :occasion14:
 

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