Coin silver (.900) spoon circa 1830

[Dave2000]

I recovered this spoon from underneath the brick walkway of a 100+ year old house on Long Island. It's obviously crushed, but the markings looked old, although the spoon itself felt rather thin (I initially thought it might be aluminum). After researching it (including getting some invaluable help along the way), it is a coin silver (.900) spoon made by a New Jersey silversmith. Monogramed "HAB" on the front and stamped "L.CORY" on the reverse. In the U.S., coin silver predates sterling silver. Sterling (.925) is considered to have replaced coin silver by about 1870. This took a few days to positively I.D. which is why I didn't post it sooner.

Short bio on the silversmith: Lewis Cory, born 5 Oct 1808, died 3 Jan 1863

 

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[Argentium]

What a nice find ! Good job on the research . When I see a coin silver spoon sometimes my imagination has me thinking about
the coins that went into the crucible to make it - some Spanish , some Capped Bust , or even Draped Bust coinage-
maybe even some Flowing Hair silver - Wow !

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

Cool find! I found the top part of one of those at a site out here with the fancy monogrammed initials but they were quite faint and dang those things are like alien writing to me too!

 

[Dave2000]

What a nice find ! Good job on the research . When I see a coin silver spoon sometimes my imagination has me thinking about
the coins that went into the crucible to make it - some Spanish , some Capped Bust , or even Draped Bust coinage-
maybe even some Flowing Hair silver - Wow !

Exactly-- it's incredible to think about what coins went into a particular spoon (several coins per spoon).

Nice find there fellow digger! I'm yet to find my silver spoon haha. I'm also on long Island, do you belong to any clubs?

Thanks. No clubs for me (most of the clubs seem relatively far from me). I'm in Huntington, I'd consider a club if it was local.

Cool find! I found the top part of one of those at a site out here with the fancy monogrammed initials but they were quite faint and dang those things are like alien writing to me too!

Yeah the monogram was tricky to read (I actually had an easier time taking a picture of it and reading that instead). The thinness of the spoon (especially near the base) really threw me at first-- I didn't think it was silver. It turns out that thinness is a characteristic of many coin silver spoons: Coin silver spoons | Why are they often so thin?

Closeup of the monogram:

 

[villagenut]

So you found an old beat up spoon, dirty and crushed and tweaked out of shape a bit....but boy is she a keeper!! Nice Save Dave

 

[beez0404]

Your spoon is a wonderful find. Congratulations.

 

[EccentricInTexas]

NICE!!! Sometimes those spoons were marked "Coin" to denote .900 silver. They usually were made from melted down coins hence the name Coin silver!!!

 

[park pirate]

Nice ..

 

[NHBandit]

Very cool. That could be partially restored with a very small ball peen hammer to make it more displayable. Mainly the bowl part. The missing Silver on the handle I doubt there's much you can do with. Here is one that's been handed down in my family since the 1830s. Very thin handle, same as yours. It is also coin Silver. The pic makes it look plated but it's tarnish.

 

[Dave2000]

Yeah, I was considering trying to restore it a bit, not sure exactly how (or if) I'll do it, but I think it could work. I need to physically clean of some of the dirt first (some if it is really stuck in the crushed recesses of the bowl). The missing piece would require a silversmith, which may be a little more than I want to do.

The house where I found it is circa 1910. A few confirmed 1800's relics but the oldest coin so far is a 1929 wheat, and no silver coins have turned up yet. I have an open invitation to MD there, so I'll certainly be going back.

Nice heirloom you have there (I have nothing in my family from the 19th century).

 

[Carolina Tom]

Nice silver find. Congrats. GL&HH.

 

[Argentium]

Dave2000 , I think it would be wonderful if you were able to have some restoration done on the spoon . You should have a silversmith
do the work -not your local jeweler - unless he/she is familiar with metal forming . It may not be prohibitively expensive , you might get
an estimate or two .

 

[BurntBear]

Very nice find!

 

[Dave2000]

Dave2000 , I think it would be wonderful if you were able to have some restoration done on the spoon . You should have a silversmith
do the work -not your local jeweler - unless he/she is familiar with metal forming . It may not be prohibitively expensive , you might get
an estimate or two .

I've been thinking about it, and I'll at least get an estimate and see where it goes from there. It's certainly not very often (for me at least) to recover a nearly 200-year-old object that can be traced to a specific craftsman (and even that seems incredible to me; how many of us can say that something we've created will be a topic of discussion in 200 years?). I guess that's the reason I'd consider having it professionally restored-- it seems almost like a work of art that someone made that didn't deserve to be buried and crushed like that, so if getting it back to as close to an original state is possible, maybe I can do that.

I'm 5 minutes from you man, surprised we haven't run into each other yet!

Hey, if you're heading out and want to meet up sometime, let me know (that also extends to anyone else who's local to me).

 

[jewelerguy]

great spoon. I love it when people find an item that can be attributed to a certain maker and time frame.

 

[villagenut]

That could be partially restored with a very small ball peen hammer to make it more displayable.

Call me old fashioned, but I think she's beautiful despite her wretched appearance...at least that's what my momma taught me.