1700s button, knee breech buckle, musketball and a Toasted 1842 Half Dime

[Don in SJ]

My main hunting season does not start yet for about a month, or once the underbrush starts dying down, but I have a few spots in the woods I can hunt during the summer months and today I went to the one where I got my hundredth Large Cent about a year and half ago.

I could only hunt about 50% of the prime area, due to the high weeds, but on the far side where I got a NJ copper back in the 90's I finally got a decent reading this morning. About 8 inches down I got the beautiful 34mm colonial button with a nice decorative design on it. and not far away again, very deep the musketball and a very nice 1700's knee breech buckle. My second or third one of those this year.

I tried hunting for awhile in the weeds and got a coin reading but it was shallow and for a split second I thought Half Cent when I saw it, but, logic prevailed and it was a clad quarter.

As I was just about done hunting I got a 5-6 inch deep reading that could have been anything from a button to a shotgun casing. I found the small disc in the ground and it looked like a toasted button from a fire, but after putting the loupe on it, I saw the words HALF DIME. So at least I got a coin, even though it is bubbled and fried from being in a fire. I know my son found a Half Real two years ago in similar state, the silver will not look like silver, even after cleaning, it stays more gray like pewter.

The buckle's rotted steel parts fell apart when cleaning, which was no big loss, since the frame is in decent shape, the button cleaned up beautifully and the coin basically stayed the same poor condition, although the date of 1842 was visible, so at least I got the date.
That was my 21st Pre Civil War coin for this hunting season and that is the newest one of the 21. It has been a great year so far for numbers, but not quality. I think between my son and I for pre Civil War coins, we are at 36 coins. Hopefully a few more before the end of the year..

HH
Don

 

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[aa battery]

like always great finds

 

[halfdime]

Toasted or not, it's still a great find, and so are the others!

 

[Detectingfreak]

love the half dime! To bad its toasted!

 

[romeo-1]

Nice finds Don...I have only found two complete knee or shoe buckles and about a half dozen frames but that one is more ornate. Very nice!

 

[Don in SJ]

Nice finds Don...I have only found two complete knee or shoe buckles and about a half dozen frames but that one is more ornate. Very nice!

I just recently redid my Shadow boxes of my displayable finds, here is one of the boxes with just shoe and knee breech and stock buckles.

Don

 

[Evolution]

That display looks great Don. I wish I had enough buckles to display like that. The button is a keeper as well. Very nice.

 

[dwayne sueno]

don

your half dime looks counterfeit to me, especially when you say that it rang a little like a shotgun shell/button. i found THIS counterfeit 1842 dime earlier this year. it was in the middle of the nowhere, and almost right underneath a deer stand. i'd already dug a handful of shotguns shells there, but couldn't help myself, and out popped this. thought it was a button at first...

 

[Don in SJ]

don

your half dime looks counterfeit to me, especially when you say that it rang a little like a shotgun shell/button. i found THIS counterfeit 1842 dime earlier this year. it was in the middle of the nowhere, and almost right underneath a deer stand. i'd already dug a handful of shotguns shells there, but couldn't help myself, and out popped this. thought it was a button at first...

You might be correct, but I am not sure how a silver coin will react for sure, I do know they bubble, and distort, but one thing I never bothered checking, the size, LOL, this Half Dime is the size of a Seated Dime? Going to have to send some photos to my buddies on this one....
BTW, buttons can read anywhere and this one read close to where the colonial button read, just a bit lower, and shotgun shell casings, although in general they read in one particular area, they vary also, so must dig solid repeatable targets, since even good buttons read as shotgun casings at times.

Update: I just weighed the coin and accounting for wear it is approximately correct for a Half Dime. Perhaps someone hammered it to the size of a dime for passing off as. It is almost the size of the seated dime but thin, even a tad thinner than a half dime, which again points to it being possibly hammered to that size.

Don

 

[t-bucket]

Congrats on a great hunt and love the half dime !!!!

 

[Ia.FurTrade]

WTG Don!! Nice finds!
HH! Dale

 

[COUNTRY GIRL]

That buckle will make a nice addition to the shadow box of truely amazing buckles. I'd be thrilled with a hunt like that. Great assortment, a site that produces like that is a find in it's self!

 

[BlackX]

Nice finds, Don! Pretty cool decorated flat button and buckle in particular.

The item on the bottom looks like a strip of lead but what's the triangular-shaped piece on the right?

And in the shadow box, what cound of buckles are in the center bottom (with forked tongues). I found one of those and don't know what it is.

 

[N.J.THer]

Don,
Congrats on the great finds. You always seem to find the good stuff. Love the button and buckle...the display case looks great.
NJ

 

[Iron Patch]

That buckle and button is exactly the type of finds I like to see when we find a new site. Usually it means good stuff is on the way, of course in your case good stuff from past hunts. I don't think I seen a single buckle dug here that still had the iron guts. The plough tends to take care of some of that type of cleaning for us.

 

[Colonial Zoyboy]

I love finding those dandy buttons. Coppas are never too far off when one of those 34 mm buttons pops out of the ground. 8)

 

[Don in SJ]

Nice finds, Don! Pretty cool decorated flat button and buckle in particular.

The item on the bottom looks like a strip of lead but what's the triangular-shaped piece on the right? Yes, the piece you mention is lead btw.

And in the shadow box, what cound of buckles are in the center bottom (with forked tongues). I found one of those and don't know what it is.

The triangle piece is a portion of a rotted pewter spoon, right where the handle and the bowl part meet. The buckles are shoe buckles, the vast majority of the buckles in the display are shoe buckle frames, then the smaller one on the left is knee breech buckle and the two on the lower right are known as Stock buckles.

Don

 

[Nana40]

What a great button! That one is a nice one!! Congrats on a great hunt~

Nana

 

[Colonial Copper Zeus]

Nice detail on the button. Odd halfdime. Nice buckle collection.
Chris

 

[Don in SJ]

Here is a photo comparison of my "Half Dime" found yesterday and one I found a few years ago. Rather obvious the one I found yesterday is bigger, just shy of the same diameter of a Seated Dime.

For a good story, how about, it was a legit half dime, 1842, some fellow decided to double his profit by hammering the Half dime into dime shape. Well, maybe it worked and he got away with it and the person who got the coin in change got ticked off, scratched the heck out of the coin and threw it in the fire in disgust!

Or, the fellow doing the alteration to the coin, did not like his work and threw it in the fire.

Or, it did get used and was burnt in a house fire.

A lot of possibilities. I do think it was a legit coin, it does appear to be silver that has been in a fire from what I can tell, and it's weight is in the ballpark for a coin that has a bit of wear and tear to it.

This was my third "interesting" coin found this year. First was a King George II Halfpenny that was made of low grade pewter, the second was the 3 in 1 copper, where they took a KGIII Halfpenny and hammered a Draped Bust Half Cent and Classic Head Half Cent onto it.

Whatever really happened to this little piece of silver, I am sure will never be known, shame coins can' talk!

Don