Large Cent Blanks Discovery Discussed

[pgleba]

This photo is pretty much representative of what I found. One blank looks like another. This not a blank I found. All my discovery either went to auction or to the local historical society.
The site is completely cleaned out. I came across it through some notes I wrote for a mineral locality book. A magazine article written in 1942 wrote of a person retrieving the copper material for the war effort.
Right after the works closed down, I imagine circa 1859, there must have been lots of material lying around. Through the years they were gleaned. The people living in the area apparently did not know what was there or weren't interested. When I was writing the mineral locality book I wasn't interested in metal detecting.
When I went to the site there wasn't anything on the surface. There were so many cinders around that a metal detector was useless.
I was sitting on the bank thinking what to do, idly scratching the ground, when I came up with a little triangular piece of copper. At that point I knew I had it.
I came back with a screen and shovel. After sifting out the material I raked everything back so it looked practically undisturbed. Rains that followed would complete the job.
I later went to another part of the site and found a Chinese coin sitting right on top of some cinders. The site had at the time furnace(s) to produce the copper. This site is now cleaned out. The last time I went there was a no trespassing sign. I had written to the land owners asking if they wanted to strike a deal. No response.
With all these caveats my book is titled "Massachusetts Mineral and Fossil Localities". It is available on line at www.bostonmineralclub.org in the members section of the site. Membership fee is nominal. One does not have to attend meetings to access the site.

 

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[BuckleBoy]

Interesting story! Thanks for sharing.


One question--wouldn't a blank planchet have nothing on it--not even a raised rim? They were merely punched out of a sheet of copper of the correct thickness, and in no way stamped, struck, or finished.

 

[pgleba]

All of the blanks I found had a raised rim. Perhaps all of the blanks were processed at the site after they were punched out. Interestingly I found a couple of smaller blanks. Half-cents?

 

[BuckleBoy]

All of the blanks I found had a raised rim. Perhaps all of the blanks were processed at the site after they were punched out. Interestingly I found a couple of smaller blanks. Half-cents?

I would love to know how much both sizes of blanks weigh.


Best Wishes,



Buckles

 

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

BB describes a Type I blank planchet - finder is describing a Type II blank planchet. After they are punched from the strips they are processed to raise the rims which makes it take longer for the coin to wear. siegfried schlagrule

 

[pgleba]

What is difference between Types I and II?

 

[froggy38383]

Interesting post, ty for the info.

 

[CRUSADER]

What is difference between Types I and II?

As described above.

I - is blank
II - is blank with a raised rim (after processing)

 

[johnnyi]

Very interesting story pgleba. Being foremost a fossil man, I guess you did only one back flip after the discovery as opposed to the several we would do as detectorists. Was there another post I think, where you mentioned this being a place where they smelted copper? If this was a smelting operation, (as the cinders imply in was in this post), no doubt the blanks must have been sold to the operation as scrap to add to the mix. I guess the date on the Chinese coin will support this if it is early enough? Boy, it would be nice to locate the home of the die cutter who must have purchased blanks on which to test his work. Although production of various coins can be placed to pretty definate locations, I've oftened wondered if the locations of die cutters themselves, even the ones who's product was not accepted for use, could be found and explored.

Before retiring, I made a living in scrap metal, and one of the perks was to glean the yards for what may have been brought in. You could find anything under the sun, including on a rare occasion, non-official dies for various seals, etc.. You mentioned the scrap drives and that got me remembering. treasures do get scrapped! While detecting a farm once, I hit a small load of debris that had to have been the remains of a scrap haul sometime before or during WW1 judging by the dates of the objects. It was a mix of lead, brass bits and pieces, bent up copper, and in the mix was the bent brass hilt of an 1830's officer's sword with the many hack marks of a chisel which showed that it was beaten off the blade without any care to its value other than scrap. I see I'm rambling... anyhow I liked your post. Finds like the one you made turn me on.

 

[pgleba]

The manufacture was on one side of a stream. The furnaces were on the other side. It doesn't appear to me that they recycled the scrap and rejects. In fact the blanks I found looked perfectly good to me.

 

[allen]

really interesting find !!

 

[silvercop]