Unbelievable 3 Hours of digging today! My first Spanish Silver! Another Slave Tag! +

[Stef45]

I am posting this before I have cleaned my finds fully because I have grad school tonight. Went back to ol faithful this morning with VMI. We first tasted my 1795 Half Dime and it is looking like it is a contemporary counterfeit! Which looks like it might be more rare than the actual real coin. More to follow when i have more info. My first target this morning came in at 38-39 but really faint and only on one axis. But the way this site has been going i knew to dig it. To my utter disbelief out pops my first Spanish Reale! 1774 2Reale mint Mexico City! Could not believe it! VMI was dumbfounded since we have swung this 10 x 10yd area 3948393 times now. Looks to be in pretty good shape but again I have yet to clean it properly. So its officially official...Im in the 1700's club!



Next good signal came in like a button and sure enough it was a button! It is a two piece Navy button. The back is missing unfortunately but to me it looks Confederate. It doesn't say CS at the button like some of the Rebel Navy buttons I've seen however. If y'all know for sure let me know. Since we have dug quite a bit of CW relics and buttons it is very possible that it is Confed. Measuring around 22.5 mm.



With these two finds in a case in my pocket I was flying pretty high! VMI already was ready to hit me with this shovel most likely. So I started to head for my car swinging as I went...popped out a tiny flat button in a trashy area so i slowed down. Very next signal came in like a can. But since this site is what it is i dug it and literally 2-3 inches down pops out a piece of copper. I could barely see what look liked an 8! I started to brush it and saw 1829 and I knew...SLAVE TAG! I yelled over to VMI and said "Hey don't hate me" and he replied "DID YOU DIG ANOTHER REALE (insert expletive)!!!!" and I just kinda grinned. Ive found the top part of a later slave tag where you could read "charleston" but this one has the year and you can see faintly the dots surrounding the "Servant", "Mechanic" or whatever the job title was for the slave. Cant see yet what the job was but these dots were only used by a particular blacksmith who made the tags for the city and it is the same blacksmith that made VMI's slave tag. It is partial but its a almost all there. Pretty over the moon! Again I will try to post more pictures when i have everything cleaned up better. Thanks for reading, sorry for the long story but this was just a banner day for me. Good luck out there!

 

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[Patriot Relics]

Hey Stef, for a 3 hour hunt you absolutely knocked it out of the park. The 2R places you solidly in the 1700s Club even after the 1795 tested at 50% silver. Walking to the truck and pulling a partial slave tag is just cruel and unusual while I was cleaning out all the iron BANNER hunt if I've ever seen one. Congrats bud

 

[JackalopeZL1]

You guys are killing it!!! Congrats

 

[Stef45]

Hey Stef, for a 3 hour hunt you absolutely knocked it out of the park. The 2R places you solidly in the 1700s Club even after the 1795 tested at 50% silver. Walking to the truck and pulling a partial slave tag is just cruel and unusual while I was cleaning out all the iron BANNER hunt if I've ever seen one. Congrats bud

Thanks bud, I'm still kinda in awe....didnt think I would have a dig like that ever!

 

[vpnavy]

WOW Stef!

 

[Stef45]

WOW Stef!

Haha Isn't that crazy! 3 hours....Luck of the Irish i guess

 

[DizzyDigger]

Now THAT is how to tell the story about a days hunt!

A great story written up that way beats the crap out of a shaky video, any day.

Thanks for sharing it with us Stef..

 

[Stef45]

Now THAT is how to tell the story about a days hunt!

A great story written up that way beats the crap out of a shaky video, any day.

Thanks for sharing it with us Stef..

Thanks Dizzy. Yeah I have no time for filming anything too busy digging! Haha. Appreciate your comments.

 

[BigWaveDave]

You've been killing it!....congrats on ALL of your finds, today and the past few weeks!

 

[Stef45]

You've been killing it!....congrats on ALL of your finds, today and the past few weeks!

Thanks Dave, I appreciate it. Not sure what happened but we really just started hitting a groove at this site. Can't wait to get back!

 

[Steve in PA]

Congrats on your first Spanish Silver, and a big 2 reale to boot. Not a Mexico City though, you have a Lima, Puru there. First time I've seen one with the ME mintmark, I usually see the LM mint mark.

Lima(1568-1572) (1577-1588) (1659-1660) (1684-1824)

Mintmark-P, or P with star above, or L, or LM, or LIMA, or a slightly overlapped ME. Lima has the distinction of being the only mint to strike all five of the coin types. Pillar type cob - (1568-1571), shield type cob - (1572 and 1577-1588), pillars and waves type cob - (1659-1660 and 1684-1752), milled pillar - (1752-1772), and milled bust - (1772-1824). The first dated coin was struck in 1659.

 

[fuzzytexan]

The back of that Spanish has some great detail!! Congrats, I would have been dancing!!

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats on the killer hunt! WOW.

 

[Stef45]

Congrats on your first Spanish Silver, and a big 2 reale to boot. Not a Mexico City though, you have a Lima, Puru there. First time I've seen one with the ME mintmark, I usually see the LM mint mark.

Lima(1568-1572) (1577-1588) (1659-1660) (1684-1824)

Mintmark-P, or P with star above, or L, or LM, or LIMA, or a slightly overlapped ME. Lima has the distinction of being the only mint to strike all five of the coin types. Pillar type cob - (1568-1571), shield type cob - (1572 and 1577-1588), pillars and waves type cob - (1659-1660 and 1684-1752), milled pillar - (1752-1772), and milled bust - (1772-1824). The first dated coin was struck in 1659.

Ok I see it now! I really don't know much about reales so I'm learning as I go. I did read that 1774 2 Reale from Peru are more rare. So thats some good news thanks Steve!

 

[Twin Picks]

Amazing hunt!! BIG congrats!!
Cant wait to see what trade is on that tag...
Keep it up!!!

 

[Stef45]

The back of that Spanish has some great detail!! Congrats, I would have been dancing!!

Yeah I was pretty surprised to see that kind of detail on a coin that old...the dirt where we are seems to have kept it in good condition. VMI's 1/2 Reale was in pretty decent shape too. I mean if I could dance I would have...might be able to do an Irish Jig. I'll have to keep that in mind haha. Thanks!

 

[Stef45]

Congrats on the killer hunt! WOW.

Thanks Tom! I gotta keep up with these other Low Country diggers haha.

 

[Stef45]

Amazing hunt!! BIG congrats!!
Cant wait to see what trade is on that tag...
Keep it up!!!

Not sure if I'm going to be able to make it out...its pretty faded on there but we shall see. Thanks! I'll try!

 

[OutdoorAdv]

WOW! Huge congratulations man. That's one killer hunt. That 2 reales looks like its in great shape. If you decide to try and remove the black scale and have trouble, shoot me a message. I've dug some like that where traditional methods did nothing to that scale. I cant wait to see more pictures of your slave tag. When you're back there with VMI, if you see him digging a huge hole, you might want to run

So your half dime tested 50% silver? That makes it even more interesting man. I can't wait to hear more about that one too.

 

[CASPER-2]