Fugio, Fugio, wherefore art thou, Fugio? (4 LCs: 20 min., 3 holes)

BlackX

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Right under my coil! ;D

There's one site I've been hunting on and off for a couple of years. I've never hit anything particular fantastic at it--though some nice stuff--but something about it kept me coming back. The location shows up on 1700s maps, though never with anything located on it. Just the blank spot between roads and houses. But, a week or so ago, I hit an Indian Head on it and my oldest Merc, a '23, so I knew there were still goodies there. A couple days later, I hit it again and found another Indian. Then 2 nights ago I hit it and didn't find anything but an old, or semi-old, button and a 1919-S wheat. Now I've never seen anyone else on that site but dog-poopers but I talked with a woman at work about it after I'd found the Indian and Merc and she said she'd hit it with her club years ago. So, when I was there last night--and not finding much--I glanced across the road and thought, "hmmmm..., I never thought abut that spot before. I wonder if there's anything interesting there." "Maybe no one else has hit it much." (Which I suspect turns out to be the case.) After leaving work tongiht I was going to hit another spot but when I drove past I decided to hit it anyway, so parked nearby and walked around the corner to see what I thought. There was actually a part of that park I'd never even noticed before, and I've driven by it hundreds of times! Okay, I figured, if I hadn't noticed that, the odds are good that it hasn't been hit too hard. So I went back to the Jeep and geared up.

Walked to the unknown part and hit nothing but trash and then a modern spill wi/ two cents, two quarters, and then a dime, all right on the surface. Worked my way along further and dug a signal that turned out to be #$*#$% and then kept going to the part of the park that I'd at least seen before, when I used to live out along that road. Hunted along the edge, and then towards the middle for about an hour with nothing to show for it but a couple of clad dimes and memorials. It was staring to get dark by now. About then, I got a signal that was bouncing around between the top left of the screen but seemed to be stuck a bit on the 24 conductive level, though i t was bouncing a lot on the ferrous (horizontal) axis. But it seemd to be doing that pretty consistently. Was reading about halfway down on the depth meter. After some failed iffy readings earlier--including some disappearing signals that were probably hot rocks--I wasn't too confident but I was thinking "Indian" at that point since the VFO seemed to be locking on to it pretty well. Cut the plug, dug down, and was VERY pleasantly surprised. I was so surprised, I didn't think to take a pic. Cleaned it up slightly with some spit and a toothbrush and thought I had a early 1800s Classic Head large cent. Didn't find out until I got home that it wasn't. King George II (27.8mm 8,0g):

080618_Coin-1_obverse_8149_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-1_reverse_8150_sm.jpg


I was quite excited by now and, after checking the hole, poured the dirt back in, flipped the plug back, I started spiralling slowly and carefully out from that spot. After a few minutes, about 18 inches away, I got a similar signal. Oh yeah! Cut the plug, pulled out some dirt, and again about 6" down, found me a wonderful piece of copper. Did the ol' spit and toothbrush bit and saw something I couldn't quite believe. "That really can't be a ****ing Fugio, can it?" Whether it was or wasn't, I was already feeling "detecting can't get much better than this." 1787 Fugio, no idea what variety yet (28.1mm 9.2g):

080618-2112_4x_2nd_hand_8128.JPG


080618_Coin-2-Fugio_obverse_8152_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-2_Fugio_reverse_8170_sm.jpg


Now I was really getting excited! And still muttering to myself, "That really can't be a ****ing Fugio, can it?" I tucked the 2nd large copper away between the cotton and, amazingly enough, remembered to run the probe back in the hole. SING! Off to the upper right and deeper. Another one in the same hole? A colonial pocket spill? Dig, dig, dig. As I got carefully got closer the readings were starting to look like possibly silver but, after a brief bit of extra excitement, large copper #3 was in the loose dirt in the bottom of the hole. I haven't been able to find what coin this one is yet. (And I think I went through everything nd.edu has up in their colonial section as well as a few other spots.) It looks like it would be distinctive with that extra large left-facing bus and the circular decoration on the back. The Washington Success medal shows some similar design elements but it's definitely not that. Can anyone ID this coin?
Unknown (28.9mm 12.6g):

080618-2117_4x_3rd_hole_8131_crop.jpg


080618-2117_4x_3rd_hand_8132_sm.JPG


080618_Coin-3_obverse_8156_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-3_reverse_8158_sm.jpg


Stashed that baby away and checked the hole again. Nothing this time. :( Finished up, stood up and continued detecting. A short distance away--between the excitement, the darkness, and spiraling around I was getting a bit confused at this point--but probably about two feet opposite on the other side of the first hole I started getting a nice tone with similar cursor bouncings as the first three. Cut another plug and, a bit deeper than the others, I think, up popped large copper #4. (A bit of brushing away with fingertips for the photo.) King George I, I believe (28.0mm 9.2g):

080618-2124_4x_4th_hole_8134_sm.JPG


080618_Coin-4_obverse_8159_sm.jpg


080618_Coin-4_reverse_8169_sm.jpg


With #4 safely stashed away, I started detecting again. But I was really getting confused at this point as to where I'd detected and dug the previous ones. I had the general area but as to specifics, I was lost. After those hits I was digging anything that sounded close but came up with nothing interesting for the next 10m or so and wrapped it up for the evening. I drove home on Cloud Nine wondering if those four large coppers were all from a colonial pocket spill, some sort of meeting or business location (but not finding much iron yet), part of a stash, or something else entirely.

I also stopped and picked up some celebratory fluid. :) (Man, Lagavulin has gotten WAY too expensive.)

Any suggestions for cleaning/not cleaning/professional cleaning gladly taken. Etc.

I WILL hit this site hard. (Probably starting tomorrow night.)

_Rich_
 

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BlackX

BlackX

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BTW, I suspect someone might have used that one for a button. The through-hole and the gouge on the back would be a perfect fit for someone to have run a nail(?) through and bent it over. The center of the coin is right inbetween those two marks. Guess I should take it out of the 2x2 (starting to use those to store buttons) and take a pic of the back. (Also might explain some of the wear.)

There's a story behind all those coins in one spot. Wonder if I'll ever be able to figure out any more of the story.
 

Iron Patch

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BlackX said:
BTW, I suspect someone might have used that one for a button. The through-hole and the gouge on the back would be a perfect fit for someone to have run a nail(?) through and bent it over. The center of the coin is right inbetween those two marks. Guess I should take it out of the 2x2 (starting to use those to store buttons) and take a pic of the back. (Also might explain some of the wear.)

There's a story behind all those coins in one spot. Wonder if I'll ever be able to figure out any more of the story.

The most common scenario would be you're hunting around an early homesite that was settled about the time of your newest old coins. The earlier ones just happened to still be in circulation to be lost.
 

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BlackX

BlackX

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That could be (early home site) but a couple of things lead me to believe otherwise. Despite the amount of nails shown in the photo of hunt #2, this is actually one of the cleanest sites I've ever hunted. Certainly nothing like the, admittedly few, known early home sites I've hunted and even far less than almost everywhere else I hunt. That really stood out to me before I found the first coin. The second thing is that no buildings show on any maps I've seen of that location, and I have maps that should show such--they show other buildings--going back to the early 1700s. I understand that houses could come and go without showing on maps, often burnt on purpose and the ashes sifted for the nails until nails became affordable after about 1820(?) but I'm not sure how that fits in with the timeline of the coins all found so close together and, so far, nothing else showing up. (That last coin was probably about a foot from the Fugio/Louis XVI hole--I missed it the first time.) And would the fact that early settlers often built homes in the nailless Indian style play into it? (But then the age of those coins and the wear on them belies that.)

Something I just thought of about 10 minutes ago that might be a factor: I remembered that--and how shall I put this without giving too much away--let's just say that it is very close to a known early 1600s nexus (which I've tried digging at but, I think, is full of fill dirt now--though as I'm writing this, I think I'll have to try that some more too). About 1/4-1/3 mile away. And, come to think of it, it would have been a fairly natural route of travel from that location. But the nexus quit being active by the 1700s and those coins, except for the double tournois, all date from later than that was an active location. But one road close by is shown in the early 1700s maps. About 40 feet from the coins. This is confusing but fun to try to figure out. :)

For those that have a lot of experience hunting old sites, how often do you find a clump of coins fairly close together and very little elsewhere? Is that common?
 

Iron Patch

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BlackX said:
That could be (early home site) but a couple of things lead me to believe otherwise. Despite the amount of nails shown in the photo of hunt #2, this is actually one of the cleanest sites I've ever hunted. Certainly nothing like the, admittedly few, known early home sites I've hunted and even far less than almost everywhere else I hunt. That really stood out to me before I found the first coin. The second thing is that no buildings show on any maps I've seen of that location, and I have maps that should show such--they show other buildings--going back to the early 1700s. I understand that houses could come and go without showing on maps, often burnt on purpose and the ashes sifted for the nails until nails became affordable after about 1820(?) but I'm not sure how that fits in with the timeline of the coins all found so close together and, so far, nothing else showing up. (That last coin was probably about a foot from the Fugio/Louis XVI hole--I missed it the first time.) And would the fact that early settlers often built homes in the nailless Indian style play into it? (But then the age of those coins and the wear on them belies that.)

Something I just thought of about 10 minutes ago that might be a factor: I remembered that--and how shall I put this without giving too much away--let's just say that it is very close to a known early 1600s nexus (which I've tried digging at but, I think, is full of fill dirt now--though as I'm writing this, I think I'll have to try that some more too). About 1/4-1/3 mile away. And, come to think of it, it would have been a fairly natural route of travel from that location. But the nexus quit being active by the 1700s and those coins, except for the double tournois, all date from later than that was an active location. But one road close by is shown in the early 1700s maps. About 40 feet from the coins. This is confusing but fun to try to figure out. :)

For those that have a lot of experience hunting old sites, how often do you find a clump of coins fairly close together and very little elsewhere? Is that common?


If this is undisturbed ground and depending on what detector you're using, there might be a lot of deep small iron your detector is ignoring. A single cabin site like that may have been, is very nice to detect because of the limited hunks of junk. It's very hard to get a sense just reading about it and if you don't have much experience around early sites maybe it will take a little more time for a more complete picture to appear.
 

West Jersey Detecting

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BlackX said:
My latest hypothesis is a tryst where the gentleman(?) laid down his coat for the lady(?). :)

_Rich_

Or it could have been the final resting place of someone who met there untimely fate, the body found and removed days or weeks later, the contents of his pockets remaining, spilled out across the wooded lot, uncovered more than 200 years later by a lad with a metal detector.
 

BuckleBoy

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HELLS YEAH!


The Peroxide worked quite well--all are improvements in legibility of the coins...and the French coin cleaned up quite well. :thumbsup:


I look forward to seeing what else comes out of this site--and I'm glad you're thinking about the site, constructing hypotheses, etc...that type of thought generally leads to more Great Finds.


Regards,


Buckleboy
 

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BlackX

BlackX

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Thanks, BB. This will be the first location I'll grid off so thoroughly and dig everything, particularly in that area where the 5 coins have now been found. When I'm done, there'll be a nice area of silence in the middle of the park. :)

I just figured something out the other day on the H2O2 method. I have one LC I dug a month or so back that I've been repeatedly treating and I've actually got a date on it now! (1848) But something that made me leery about the peroxide method was another coin I'd found a year or so ago that peroxide just seemed to eat. I'd had a 18x7 date showing in the corrosion on what I thought was a 1847 or '57 half cent but the peroxide took that off. It was so bad that I said heck with it, nothing to lose now, and started treating it with the LC too. Finally got enough corrosion off the back that I noticed a V on the reverse! I had my first V nickel for a year and had no idea. I'd never noticed that they have pretty much the same obverse on them and I guess I hadn't checked the diameter or weight.

Think I'll probably treat the old coins a bit more but want to get some kind of sealant (Blue Ribbon maybe? (never used it)) for when i'm done to, hopefully, prevent any more chemical reaction. There's a whole lot I have to learn yet about caring for these coins.
 

Iron Patch

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BlackX said:
Thanks, BB. This will be the first location I'll grid off so thoroughly and dig everything, particularly in that area where the 5 coins have now been found. When I'm done, there'll be a nice area of silence in the middle of the park. :)

I just figured something out the other day on the H2O2 method. I have one LC I dug a month or so back that I've been repeatedly treating and I've actually got a date on it now! (1848) But something that made me leery about the peroxide method was another coin I'd found a year or so ago that peroxide just seemed to eat. I'd had a 18x7 date showing in the corrosion on what I thought was a 1847 or '57 half cent but the peroxide took that off. It was so bad that I said heck with it, nothing to lose now, and started treating it with the LC too. Finally got enough corrosion off the back that I noticed a V on the reverse! I had my first V nickel for a year and had no idea. I'd never noticed that they have pretty much the same obverse on them and I guess I hadn't checked the diameter or weight.

Think I'll probably treat the old coins a bit more but want to get some kind of sealant (Blue Ribbon maybe? (never used it)) for when i'm done to, hopefully, prevent any more chemical reaction. There's a whole lot I have to learn yet about caring for these coins.


What you have to be careful of is leaving alone the coins that have the detail in the patina. Peroxide... or even WATER will make it worse.
 

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BlackX

BlackX

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Iron Patch said:
What you have to be careful of is leaving alone the coins that have the detail in the patina. Peroxide... or even WATER will make it worse.

How do you tell if the detail is in the patina itself? (besides experience? :) )
 

Iron Patch

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BlackX said:
Iron Patch said:
What you have to be careful of is leaving alone the coins that have the detail in the patina. Peroxide... or even WATER will make it worse.

How do you tell if the detail is in the patina itself? (besides experience? :) )

Besides experience? ... Experience. :D
 

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