1824 US Bust Half, 1816 2 Reale and 1776 1 Reale Pocket Spill

[OutdoorAdv]

Still shaking with this one. I got 6 firsts today... (*Update at bottom of post with recent pictures*)

My research finally paid off with some mid 1800's maps and I knew I was on a spot from the colonial period until mid 1800's. I was digging a lot of big iron with most of my holes having oyster shells and clay brick fragments so very good signs. I had dug a couple complete axe heads and was pretty excited... after electrolysis those will display very nice. (more pictures of those a few posts down)

Then I dug this spill... here they are!



The site is loaded with iron so the "perfect signal" doesn't exist here. So I get one jumping from iron with some repeatable mid tones, and jumping into high 80's. I figured it was another piece of deep iron with a halo affect and maybe another harmonica reed.

First one out... I knew it was silver, had letters stamped on the edge, was the size of a half dollar, and saw "Ame.." and 1824, and knew I had just dug an 1824 US Bust Half Dollar.


I calm down, recheck the hole... theres more! Jumping iron, mid tones and high tones... pick through some square nails and...
Second one out... 1816 2 Reales. Saw the size, how thin, and pillars and knew right away.


I'm floating on air by now. Two early silvers. I recheck the hole... theres more! Still jumping iron, mid tones and high tones.
I pull out some more nails, figure screw it... widen the hole and make a pile of dirt.
Two signals in the pile, a high tone and a mid tone.
Third one out... 1776 1 Reales.


Unbelievable! The brass forked thing was the mid tone, obviously three silvers were the high tone... the pouch had 3 or 4 more nails which were the low tones.

Mix all that iron, brass and silver together, put it in a hole... and you get the best imperfect signal I've ever dug!


Final view of the hole the spill came from.


I was only there an hour and after pulling those silvers, I couldn't concentrate... heading back tomorrow.
I'm really excited about the big iron too. Putting them into electrolysis now. I have a few brass items I dug today that I still need to clean up.


Any my 6 new firsts are:
1st Bust Silver
1st Half Dollar
1st Spanish Silver
1st 2 Reales
1st 1 Reales
1st 1700's silver

Also, I've never dug seated. Dug barber and later. Dug a lot of large cents too... so the early silver had eluded me until today.

A better picture of the half with the light just right.


(UPDATE) - Before and after pictures with scale removed

 

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[rodarian]

WOW! I would've been shaking, myself. I am stunned. What a stellar day!

 

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[Man o' War]

Killer day. P.S. I voted Banner.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Thank you all for the votes and the congratulations. I don't think my weekend hunts have sunk in yet. ha I'm used to "good finds" being much more spread out.

Finds like this, that you all post, are what fuels me between hunts... So I'm glad, to get lucky enough, to find something as cool as the other posts I see on here.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats on the truly eye popping finds. WOW. GL&HH.

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

That is a great spill, and maybe even better a great site.

 

[Xilfie]

I would be freaking out if I saw just one of those poped out.

 

[Steve in PA]

Man what a spill! All silver too. I have dug plenty of Spanish but only one capped bust silver and it was a half dime. Would love a big busted silver like that!!

 

[OutdoorAdv]

I mentioned at the bottom of the post, but I've never dug seated silver and always dreamed about digging a bust silver.

When the half came out first, I first thought 'oh great, an aluminum token'. I couldn't tell weight with my gloves on, so once I got my gloves off, felt the weight and realized what it was, I freaked out. A minute later when the 2 reales came out I freaked out all over again. By the time I recovered the 3rd coin, the 1 Reale... I was numb to it...Indifferent on if there was more or not... in shock really. I even remember the mid tone was the last one I recovered and I thought to myself 'ughh... this is probably just a large cent'. haha Instantly spoiled!!! I was also surprised it was all silver... after the first three, I was certain that 4th signal was a copper.

It was unbelievable.

I also realized the 1776 Reale is also the oldest coin I've ever dug when I was telling a friend about it and he asked "whats the oldest coin youve found?" and I realized... that was! ha My previous oldest was a very toasty and hardly identifiable late 1790's large cent.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Great outing. Very nice.

 

[Evolution]

If you're going to find a pocket spill it may as well be one like that. Awesome dig!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratulations! Those coins are beautiful, especially the 50 cent piece - such detail.

 

[BuckleBoy]

The brass thing beside the coins is a strap end to a leather valise from the Civil War era. Search "valise" on Tnet and you'll see where I posted photos of an original one.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

The brass thing beside the coins is a strap end to a leather valise from the Civil War era. Search "valise" on Tnet and you'll see where I posted photos of an original one.

Excellent ID! Its nearly identical to some other ones on here. Thanks a ton. I'll have some others to post in the what-is-it forum once I finish cleaning\preserving a lot of what I found last weekend.

Thanks again!

 

[jmastny78]

Very nice finds! Good luck on the next hunt!

 

[park pirate]

Wow awesome spill congrats...

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Thank you everyone for all the posts and nice words!

As you could all tell from the original pictures with the dirt removed, the ground was not the best to these silvers. I had never found silver with scale and deposits stuck to them... then again, I had never found silver that was in the ground for 190+ years. The scale and the fact that they were buried for so long obviously caused a significant amount of environmental damage to them.

I came to the conclusion that they are what they are, and without causing farther damage to them, I needed to make them displayable so that I could enjoy looking at them, as well as future generations. These coins, being many firsts for me, mean more than I can describe. Getting them preserved to the point that I felt like they were displayable, was a very stressful process for me. ha This was not tarnish on the surface, but scale. I don't like cleaned coins, but I like things that are identifiable and pleasing to look at... I consider myself a relic hunter, so I like things to look old. Therefore, I only removed enough scale to where I could enjoy the coins, and not cause any additional damage to them, and I left the tarnish mostly intact.





There was no one process that loosened it to the point that it would come right off... it was a combination of a few.
Thank you Bill and Ahab!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Great job on the electrolysis Brad. Those came out really nice and will look great in your display. Now that you're officially spoiled it'll be difficult to be satisfied with digging anything other than 18th century silver. Hope you can add more to your collection soon.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

And I just noticed, with the scale removed, the half is a "4 over other various dates" variety. I can clearly see a "0" under the "4". It looks a lot like the Red Book picture of the "4 over 2 over 0" image. I couldn't see that with the scale. Pretty cool!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

And I just noticed, with the scale removed, the half is a "4 over other various dates" variety. I can clearly see a "0" under the "4". It looks a lot like the Red Book picture of the "4 over 2 over 0" image. I couldn't see that with the scale. Pretty cool!

You're right - nice catch Brad. Although it doesn't make the coin more valuable, it's definitely a feature that adds to its uniqueness.