First hunt of 2014 produces colonial silver and copper coins

[Bill D. (VA)]

Dan and I finally had an opportunity over the weekend to get out for the first time this year. We hit a new site in an area where I had researched a few 1600s land patents hoping to stumble across an early homesite. We did our usual "divide and conquer" in an attempt to find a nice hotspot, but it seemed all we could dig was aluminum can slaw. While we were returning to the truck along the far side of the field we started noticing a little brick and iron. Soon after Dan dug a little chunk of pewter, and I soon followed with part of an early pewter button. We decided to slow down and when a few buttons and buckle pieces started showing up we decided to grid the area. It wasn't long before I surprised myself with a nice colonial silver coin - half of a 1737 one reale pistareen. Dan wasn't having any of that, and only about 10 min later he called me over to witness him recover a possible piece of silver after hearing that nice high-pitched squeal on his AT Pro. I watched as a silver coin fell out of the plug, and it looked identical to the one I just dug. We put them side-by-side, and it appeared they came from the same coin. How cool would that be!! I took some pics in the field, but later we both noticed a few subtle differences that proved they came from separate coins. Too bad as that would have been a very rare occurrence. I also recovered a couple of coppers including a Va halfpenny and a slick colonial, a few buttons, several buckle pieces and musketballs, plus an interesting lead seal with the letters "B?". I was also pleased with the end of a trifid spoon handle which dates to 1650-1700. We also got into a small fire pit but it proved to be mostly unproductive. Dan made a bunch of nice finds as well which I'm sure he'll post later. Even though we did not duplicate our banner day from the first hunt of last year, it was still a great way to start the new year and will hopefully be an omen for the remainder of the season.

 

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[Jyverb64]

Great finds and so close on those matching cut silvers

 

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[Zodiacdiverdave]

Wow Bill, you and Dan sure turned up some nice pieces, I am certain that you arn't done with that site yet. Those cut coins are done perfectly, do you know if they used a cutting tool that would hold the coin in position or would they just wack at it hoping to make a good clean cut?
ZDD

 

[HomeGuardDan]

Wow Bill, you and Dan sure turned up some nice pieces, I am certain that you arn't done with that site yet. Those cut coins are done perfectly, do you know if they used a cutting tool that would hold the coin in position or would they just wack at it hoping to make a good clean cut?
ZDD

I've read before that cutting tools were used as were sharp chisels/cleaver and a hammer, then a bending motion to finally break.

 

[Silver Tree Chaser]

Way to go, Bill! 200 in 2014? What do you think?

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Very nice hunt Bill.
Find two halves of the same coin once was beating the odds for sure.
I once found two halves of an arrowhead at least a couple of weeks apart, so I don't think we should expect that sort of thing to happen again, but it surly could...what a hobby.

Glad you are able to hunt.

Thanks Rick. Unfortunately, the next couple of days will be rare ones where the ground will be frozen from this Arctic outbreak, but generally we can hunt all winter around here without fear of extreme cold or snow. So unless you're a diving buddy of Dave's you might have a while before you can return to the fields. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for a major heat wave.

 

[pepperj]

Nice hunt! The two halves sure look nice side by side.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

That's awesome both half's of the same coin, and you each dug one! I'd play the lottery!

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Way to go, Bill! 200 in 2014? What do you think?

That'll never happen Jim. It'll probably take me at least several more years to reach that plateau unless Dan and I get lucky and unearth a stoneware jug full of colonial silver. But landing on colonial gold has always been my first priority, and will continue to be until that special day when I finally walk over one. Good luck to you in '14.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

.......also, you dig more Va halfpennies than anyone in this state. They're not as common as you claim they are.

Joey - your comment made me do some checking. I was reading where the King had ordered that 25 tons of these coins would be produced, but only 5 tons were ever minted and sent to the colonies to alleviate the coin shortage here. I weighted several of my halfpennies, and they're almost exactly 0.25 oz each. If you do the math that equates to 640,000 coins in 5 tons. That's a pretty big number for back then, and most of them were probably circulating in Va. I think that backs up my claim that these coins were commonly used in southeast Virginia in daily commerce activities. But apparently silver coinage (cut or whole) was even more common as I've dug 4 times more silver than coppers around here. I'd be interested in hearing what others are thinking on this subject.

UPDATE: I was also just reading in one of my reference books that in the course of restoration of Colonial Williamsburg over the years that a total of 40 Virginia halfpennies had been recovered which represents about 2/3 of all pre-1793 coins found there. That fact also attests to their abundance and common use.

 

[Valley Ranger]

Very nice indeed.

 

[Steve in PA]

Nice hunt Bill. What's with all the coppers? (LOL). Keep it coming, we are frozen up tight here and need to get our colonial fix somehow!

 

[HomeGuardDan]

Joey - your comment made me do some checking. I was reading where the King had ordered that 25 tons of these coins would be produced, but only 5 tons were ever minted and sent to the colonies to alleviate the coin shortage here. I weighted several of my halfpennies, and they're almost exactly 0.25 oz each. If you do the math that equates to 640,000 coins in 5 tons. That's a pretty big number for back then, and most of them were probably circulating in Va. I think that backs up my claim that these coins were commonly used in southeast Virginia in daily commerce activities. But apparently silver coinage (cut or whole) was even more common as I've dug 4 times more silver than coppers around here. I'd be interested in hearing what others are thinking on this subject.

UPDATE: I was also just reading in one of my reference books that in the course of restoration of Colonial Williamsburg over the years that a total of 40 Virginia halfpennies had been recovered which represents about 2/3 of all pre-1793 coins found there. That fact also attests to their abundance and common use.

Bill - like we discussed - Coppers were of high currency use in the Carolina's - more so than spanish silver. The fact that I never dug a VA Half Penny until i moved here and thus far have found at least 1 at every major colonial site we have hunted (on both sides of the river) adds to that fact. At the same time, I have only found 1 george copper during that time.

 

[matt092079]

I've only found one VA half penny, which was just last week. It's usually a British copper, KG II or III. Which is in northern, VA.

 

[Ifoundit69]

Awesome scores Bill , those are a real close match judging from the color of the coins it looks like if you swapped them they would fit .

 

[Zodiacdiverdave]

I've read before that cutting tools were used as were sharp chisels/cleaver and a hammer, then a bending motion to finally break.

Thanks Dan, those guys back then were pretty darn good at it.
ZDD

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Thanks Dan, those guys back then were pretty darn good at it.
ZDD

Hey Dave - Dan was telling me recently they used the vertical line in the shield (that will also bisect the date) as a guide for cutting a whole coin. That must have been the standard way of splitting them as just about every single cut piece I've found that contains part of a date either has the full "17" or the last 2 digits of the date. So apparently they were quite consistent and precise in carrying out this practice.

 

[park pirate]

Awesome..

 

[JerV3]

Like usual that's some great early finds man.

 

[joeyfresh]

I've only found one VA half penny, which was just last week. It's usually a British copper, KG II or III. Which is in northern, VA.

The same with me Matt. I've found more KG's than VA half pennys.