Late 1820s pocket spill find - 2 Bust Halves and 2 Spanish Silver

Don in SJ

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May 20, 2005
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This morning I wanted to do a hunt around the perimeter area of the homestead I got the 5 coppers at last week but the underbrush is really filling out now so I had to keep a bit closer to the actual homestead, where less underbrush was. I was hunting less than 15 minutes, and had recovered some pewter and brass pieces of unknowns when all of a sudden my XS screamed Silver to me!

I forgot my camera of course, but maybe that was the good luck I needed for this find. To my amazement the first thing I saw out of the hole was a big hunk of silver coin!

I picked it up and saw part of the Bust so I knew I had a Bust Half Dollar, :icon_thumright: I rechecked the hole with the probe and another coin was in there. Dug down the one side a bit and out pops the second Bust Half Dollar, this one completely coated but I knew what it was thanks to seeing the first one.

Now I stood up and rescanned the hole and off to the left side it was indicating yet a third coin! I enlarged the opening and out comes a thin smaller silver, which at first I was hoping to be a bust quarter but knew by the thinness it was going to be a Spanish Real. Just was not sure till I got home and checked but it was a One Real.....

Thinking wow, 3 silver in one hole, that never happened before, in fact Bust Half never happened before, but I did check the hole one more time and got a faint somewhat good coin type reading, gouged out the remaining dirt with my hand and the coin was now in the pile. A small one, a Half Real.
BigSilverApr27thDirty.jpg
PocketSpillObv.jpg
PocketSpillRev.jpg

So 4 Silvers in one hole, a first for me for something so old and so big, I was without a doubt thrilled to see this today. I thought of quitting right away to save the site for another hunt with my son and decided to slowly work my way back to the truck.

Just as I passed the area where my son got his 1794 Large Cent last week, I got a funky possible coin/iron reading. I noticed it was next to a fallen log that I had dug a hole right next to this signal last week and I remember it being a piece of iron pot. But today, maybe because of the wet ground, I heard coin and out pops a copper!


I had no idea what the copper was, I could tell it seen better days, but after cleaning it did show a nice date of 1722 and some of NIA from Brittania, so I knew I had a 1722 King George I Halfpenny. Right next to it was a button like relic, not sure if it is a button that was modified or was used for something else.


Overall, what a great hunt of less than one hour duration, April 2010, without a doubt was a winner for me.

Finds for the day, a very beautiful 1826 Bust Half Dollar
1826obvPretty.jpg
1826BustHalf.jpg
A very nice 1827 Bust Half Dollar
1827BustHalf.jpg
A decent 1782 Spanish One Real
1782OneReal.jpg
A heavily worn 1784? Spanish Half Real
1784HalfReal.jpg
Heavily worn and abused 1722 King George I Halfpenny
1722KGIHalfpenny.jpg
And a large possible button modified with two holes after shank sheared off, or perhaps something else :dontknow:
Buttonperhaps.jpg

Don
 

Upvote 22

The Seeker

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Nov 21, 2005
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Great Job.....Those are some sweet coins! Nice silver drop.....This is what detecting is all about.......Now I,m fired up about this spring.....frozen ground and plenty of snow still.............WHERE is THE THAW!!!
 

masterjedi

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May 24, 2014
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Wow the bust halves are like AU condition! Awesome finds!
 

ColonialDude

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Jul 5, 2004
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Not sure how I missed this post...but WOW what a day!! Congrats! That's a lot of beautiful silver my friend!
 

Bill D. (VA)

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Oct 7, 2008
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Dang Don - you almost gave me the big one when I saw this post. Thought it was a recently find until I realized it was from 4 years ago. I'm glad someone resurrected it from the depths of the forum since for some reason I don't remember seeing this before. Those are some incredibly awesome finds, especially those bust halves. I can't imagine finding something like that. I would definitely trade some of my colonial silver for one of those babies. Many congrats to you (but sorry it took me 4 years to say it!).
 

MUDSLINGER

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Apr 4, 2014
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perhaps the best american coins to find in my opinion. i can only imagine the goosebumps you got at the sight of that silver. banner any day of the week.
 

OP
OP
Don in SJ

Don in SJ

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May 20, 2005
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Dang Don - you almost gave me the big one when I saw this post. Thought it was a recently find until I realized it was from 4 years ago. I'm glad someone resurrected it from the depths of the forum since for some reason I don't remember seeing this before. Those are some incredibly awesome finds, especially those bust halves. I can't imagine finding something like that. I would definitely trade some of my colonial silver for one of those babies. Many congrats to you (but sorry it took me 4 years to say it!).

Bill, when I saw the first big silver in the dirt pile and picked it up and saw the Bust, I did get that great elated feeling, which only was repeated when the other one came out of the hole followed by the two Spanish Silvers. Of course that had to be the day I did not bring my digital camera and only got a lousy low quality shot on my old phone! That particular site yielded about 8 state coppers, 1794 Large Cents, and other early American and British coppers, think over 20 + coins, but for some weird reason the button finds were not in proportion to the coins, almost 1 to 1 ratio.
 

70monte68

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Aug 8, 2010
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Don, awesome find!
 

Ahab8

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Oct 15, 2013
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I'm happy to see these finds. Even if they're not recent. I am dying to find a Capped bust coin. The chances of two of those monsters has to be next to none. Wow
 

Argentium

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I remember seeing this post when it happened - and just being blown away by the condition of those halves ! Dream come true
for sure .
 

jwarner51

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Wow that's amazing! Out here in the western U.S. things like that never show up. Wish we had that kind of activity out here!
 

plugcutter84

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Truly amazing finds, I'd be happy with one of those capped bust halves... even if it was beat to death from a plow! But to find two in the same hole along with Spanish silver, wow... Might never top that day my friend. Question, did you ever ID the strange button object with the two holes? I've found the exact same thing at a colonial site and I could never figure out what it was. My best guess was small bridal rosette or saddle decoration.
 

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