Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
Dug a huge pile of coins, tokens and buttons from a more recent era yesterday
I got out yesterday with my good friend Reid to hit a site that I had researched over the summer. There was supposedly a 1700s site in the right front corner of the field just waiting for us to hunt, and I was focused on continuing my hot streak and putting more colonial silver in my pouch. However, after spending 20-30 min in that spot and not finding the iron patch, or anything else for that matter, we started roaming further into the field. I made a few random finds including a flat button, musketball, an IH, and finally a barber quarter, but could never find the house site. In the meantime I noticed that Reid had settled into a spot about 100 yards behind where the colonial house site was supposed to be. I eventually made my way over there and discovered he was digging lots of coins and tokens from the 1800s. So I joined him and we hunkered down in that area for the next 2-3 hours. Good sounding signals were everywhere although they were mixed in with a bit of iron. It was a relatively difficult area to hunt as the soybean stalks were high, the area was in the shade and quite wet in spots, and the dirt was uncharacteristically thick and sticky which is unusual for this county. In spite of those conditions we ended up with close to 50 keepers each. The most common finds were some kind of store token. Most of them had “R.H.C.” on one side, and “S.B.P.C. & M. Co” on the other. I also found one labeled as “B.P.F. & O. Co” with a “4”. Did some searching but didn’t have any luck with an ID, but they’re probably some kind of locally produced token. We’re thinking this must have been the site of a store that may have existed at this location from the mid-1800s into the very early 1900s as nothing after that time frame was found, although some of the flat buttons found mixed in preceeded this time period. Quite a few coins were found as well, and most were IHs and nickels although I dug my 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] barber quarter of the day at this spot. Unfortunately, the soil and fertilizer action took a toll on all the finds, and I doubt I’ll be able to do much more with them than what’s shown in the pics. We definitely plan to return to the site soon and slowly expand our search radius. And maybe find that mystery colonial site while we’re at it …..
I got out yesterday with my good friend Reid to hit a site that I had researched over the summer. There was supposedly a 1700s site in the right front corner of the field just waiting for us to hunt, and I was focused on continuing my hot streak and putting more colonial silver in my pouch. However, after spending 20-30 min in that spot and not finding the iron patch, or anything else for that matter, we started roaming further into the field. I made a few random finds including a flat button, musketball, an IH, and finally a barber quarter, but could never find the house site. In the meantime I noticed that Reid had settled into a spot about 100 yards behind where the colonial house site was supposed to be. I eventually made my way over there and discovered he was digging lots of coins and tokens from the 1800s. So I joined him and we hunkered down in that area for the next 2-3 hours. Good sounding signals were everywhere although they were mixed in with a bit of iron. It was a relatively difficult area to hunt as the soybean stalks were high, the area was in the shade and quite wet in spots, and the dirt was uncharacteristically thick and sticky which is unusual for this county. In spite of those conditions we ended up with close to 50 keepers each. The most common finds were some kind of store token. Most of them had “R.H.C.” on one side, and “S.B.P.C. & M. Co” on the other. I also found one labeled as “B.P.F. & O. Co” with a “4”. Did some searching but didn’t have any luck with an ID, but they’re probably some kind of locally produced token. We’re thinking this must have been the site of a store that may have existed at this location from the mid-1800s into the very early 1900s as nothing after that time frame was found, although some of the flat buttons found mixed in preceeded this time period. Quite a few coins were found as well, and most were IHs and nickels although I dug my 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] barber quarter of the day at this spot. Unfortunately, the soil and fertilizer action took a toll on all the finds, and I doubt I’ll be able to do much more with them than what’s shown in the pics. We definitely plan to return to the site soon and slowly expand our search radius. And maybe find that mystery colonial site while we’re at it …..
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