1773 VA Half Penny, Awesome Iron, Lead and more...

[OutdoorAdv]

Here is my take from my last two hunts. The first hunt on 2/6 was a half day hunt that produced the 1773 VA half penny, tombac button, V-Nickel and that was about it. So I saved those few finds to share after my next hunt, which happened this past weekend and I was able to put in a whole day. Once again, the iron stole the show with a killer pair of scissors. The second full set that I got from this location. I waited to zap them before I shared them. My hunt last weekend ended a 6 hunt streak where I pulled large coppers... I was sticking it out as long as possible to try and find something to keep the streak going.

The scissors were my favorite find, the VA copper a close second. Another great surprise was the fired musket ball that was loaded with a buck and ball load.









When I cleaned this musket ball I noticed that it was fired on the sides, then I noticed the three dimples on it. This sort of find I really enjoy. The impression of the three buck shot on the back of the ball when the musket was fired is just awesome! That piece of buck shot was not found with the ball... I dug it from the trash pit last summer not too far from the musket ball.



The shoe buckle fragment in the bottom right of this picture, matches perfectly to a buckle frame piece I dug months ago. At the bottom of this post I took a big picture of all the buckle frame pieces from this site. I am starting to find a lot of pieces that fit together.



The tines on these buckles are hand forged and the frames look decorated with some punch marks. Hard to tell and they were in rough shape, but tumbling did clean them up a lot.



This was a nice surprise on my 2/6 trip of the few non-ferrous items I dug. I thought it was a kg3 farthing for a minute until I made out the shield on the back. I'll take a state copper over a KG any day



I really like pipe pieces and this one turned up while digging some nails. Once I got home and cleaned it, I noticed that its actually glazed. Never seen a pipe bowl that was glazed. I would guess that its a later style pipe bowl, probably post CW.



This knee buckle fragment has a nice flower and scroll design on it.



Any idea on this brass item? Seems to have a rivet type thing on the back... I would guess its a cabinet latch and it swiveled on the rivet?



This is my tumbled iron from my last two trips. I do a lot of electrolysis on the larger iron, but the small stuff I started tumbling with excellent results. I only tumble iron! Then it get the same hot wax bath that the electrolysis iron gets.



Only a few rose heads were in the pile of nails. Probably 50+ nails from the last two trips... 95% are square nails and the rest are rose heads at this place.



Thee whole horse shoes were also found. I have about a dozen complete shoes from this site, and no joke - a 5 gallon bucket full of half shoes from here. There is at least 50+ half shoe pieces!



After electrolysis and before the wax



The whole mess of shoe buckle pieces from this site. Most of the ones that fit together were not found together. Persistence and keeping these finds separate from everything else is starting to pay off with some really cool pieces that are starting to fit together.

 

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[joeyfresh]

Wow, that's a lot of awesome relics you've pulled out of there. I absolutely love all of the iron and you have gotten me motivated to start cleaning mine. The VA halfpenny is killer as are the scissors. Great presentation and thanks for showing it!

 

[Vino]

Wow!
Excellent post and even better pics and display. Man that site you brought back to life 1 hole at a time. You take this hobby to a whole other level!
Fantastic as always Brad.

 

[VacantEyesBass]

holy smokes what a haul

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Brad - like I was telling you offline, according to the diagram on page 268 of the Hume book, the only example where the loops are offset from the blades, like yours are, date to the mid-1600s. But the ones in the book don't have quite the same overall appearance and are smaller than yours. So guess all I have done here is to confuse things . Lots of other great finds too including that Va halfpenny.

 

[trapperart]

Nice bunch of finds congrats

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome display of found relics! Congratualtions!!!

 

[relic nut]

That's a great bunch of finds!! I have found several of the dimpled round balls and a good bit of bucky balls. I hot glued buckshot to one and it made a cool display. If you are interested in doing this and don't have or can't find two more buck shot, PM me and I'll hook you up. Here's mine. Perfect fit. View attachment 1276254View attachment 1276255

HH, Relic Nut

 

[Steve in PA]

Nice finds Brad, the scissors are awesome!

 

[cjon455]

Man talk about a great bunch of finds, I really like those scissors for some reason. Great finds!

 

[OutdoorAdv]

I meant to share this story in my original post, but when I was packing up on Sat after hunting, I wanted to put the scissors in the top of my pack so they wouldn't get hurt. I pack up, hike out and I'm half way home before I realize $#!+, I left the scissors on the ground where I packed up. I didn't have time to turn around, but was bummed out that I left the best relic of the hunt behind. So I got up at 6 am Sun morning and it took an hour round trip, but drive, hiked and snatched them right up. Most people would think that was pretty nuts for a rusty piece of iron, but I know everyone on here will appreciate that story. Also at this site its either Colonial or CW era, so there was no question that I wouldn't leave a relic behind.

Wow, that's a lot of awesome relics you've pulled out of there. I absolutely love all of the iron and you have gotten me motivated to start cleaning mine. The VA halfpenny is killer as are the scissors. Great presentation and thanks for showing it!

Thanks a ton Joey! I love digging and processing the iron. At least half of my all time top 10 finds are iron! The bummer is that it typically takes me a few days to get the good stuff processed after I dig it, so a lot of it gets left out of my posts. I still have a bunch of stuff in the tank, including a piece to a wood stove top. I put that half penny in a container, swung for 2 more minutes and I had a go off, opened the container and saw the shield on the back. Its my 3rd VA Half penny, all found in the last 2 months.

Wow!
Excellent post and even better pics and display. Man that site you brought back to life 1 hole at a time. You take this hobby to a whole other level!
Fantastic as always Brad.

Thanks a ton dude. I keep thinking this place is kicked, but somehow the Deus and T2 are still finding stuff. I owe the majority of this hunt to the new 9" coil on the Deus... I average about 1 non-ferrous target for each hour of hunting and 1 good target each hunt... and by "good target" I mean a non-iron repeatable signal... they're all gone now. So almost all the non-ferrous targets are rough sounding with iron grunts that clean up after removing some dirt.

holy smokes what a haul

Thanks VacantEyesBass! It seemed like two slow hunts, but when I put it all together to take pictures I realized there were some pretty good keepers in there.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Brad - like I was telling you offline, according to the diagram on page 268 of the Hume book, the only example where the loops are offset from the blades, like yours are, date to the mid-1600s. But the ones in the book don't have quite the same overall appearance and are smaller than yours. So guess all I have done here is to confuse things . Lots of other great finds too including that Va halfpenny.

Bill, that would certainly be amazing as artifacts that old are very hard to come by in my area. I just read the pages and it says "drawn-loop handles that are not anchored at the end belong to the first half of the 17th century." They are not anchored. Mine are also riveted, but the rivet is hard to see unless I get the lighting just right. It says the riveted handles are also 17th century.

As you know the majority of the finds from this place fall between ~1750-1865, with some stragglers in the early 1700's like the KG1's, Pistareen and blowholes, and some other stragglers in the later 1800's like a couple IHPs and that V-Nickel. With the oldest dated piece being the 1722 pistareen and possibly the 1600's ivory violin bow frog.

So either these scissors were a cherished keepsake that were passed down for 100+ years before being lost\discarded or they fall into the 1750-1865 timeline somewhere. I really hope its the cherished keepsake one and those things are really old!

 

[johnnyblaze]

Nice variety there man but those hand forged clippers are sweet
With two pairs found do we have a Tin-knocker site on hand?Or are they for clothing?I would say they are Colonial..

~Blaze

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Nice bunch of finds congrats

Thank you trapperart.

Awesome display of found relics! Congratualtions!!!

Thank you Professor of Engineering.

That's a great bunch of finds!! I have found several of the dimpled round balls and a good bit of bucky balls. I hot glued buckshot to one and it made a cool display. If you are interested in doing this and don't have or can't find two more buck shot, PM me and I'll hook you up. Here's mine. Perfect fit. View attachment 1276254View attachment 1276255

HH, Relic Nut

Thanks a ton Relic Nut for that very generous offer. For some reason your pictures didn't attach correctly, but I saw some pictures when I googled around and the complete buck and ball load together looks really awesome. It's like a baby canister shot and hot gluing buck shot to a ball is a great idea. At this point, since I only have one ball with the dimples, I think I will wait before I reconstruct one. If I dig another ball at this site, then I will absolutely take you up on that offer and put one of those buck and ball loads back together to display. I'm hoping there is a good chance at it too since I have dug lots of musket parts, flits and bayonets here... and this was the first musket ball... so there has to be more.

Nice finds Brad, the scissors are awesome!

Thanks a ton Steve! They were mixed in with some coke.... which for some reason the 9" coil on the Deus loves. I didnt dig much coke with the 11", but the 9" seemed to find a bunch of it. Anyway, I was wondering if laying on a bed of carbon helped keep them from pitting too much or something. I posted a story in my first reply how I left the scissors in the field when I packed up and had to go back the next day and get them. ha

Man talk about a great bunch of finds, I really like those scissors for some reason. Great finds!

Thanks a ton Chris! Me too... they made my hunt. I was hoping for a makers mark on them, but its either too far gone or was never there. They are really cool though.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Nice variety there man but those hand forged clippers are sweet
With two pairs found do we have a Tin-knocker site on hand?Or are they for clothing?I would say they are Colonial..

~Blaze

I cant figure this place out man. I'm guessing a farm or plantation but with the variety of stuff maybe also a inn or something. Some of my favorite finds are the personal items. So a pair of scissors or a thimble... or I even found a knitting needle here, are some of my favorites. They were the tools that made the clothes that kept people going.

Here are the two and 1/3rd pairs of scissors from this place. The other pair was back in dec in this post http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/485811-colonial-iron-bit-pit-lc.html

 

[Loco-Digger]

So when are you opening the museum? You find so many relics and conserve them so nicely, it's just a matter of time before you run out of space at your house. Let me know, I'd like to come see the "finds museum" someday.

 

[Scrappy]

Great scissors and wow, everything else. I mean, Brad, these are all amazing finds man! I love seeing any Va. half penny since I've never found one, but my favorite displayed item is the "Ball and Buck"! I know they weren't found together but that's almost certainly what we're looking at. Simply amazing! Great show

Steve

 

[Scrappy]

I hope you don't mind my posting a wiki link about Ball and Buck and how/why/when/where it was utilized:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_and_ball

 

[OutdoorAdv]

So when are you opening the museum? You find so many relics and conserve them so nicely, it's just a matter of time before you run out of space at your house. Let me know, I'd like to come see the "finds museum" someday.

Thanks a ton Loco! I enjoy the preservation a lot, almost as much as the hunt. I'm pretty much out of space in this cabinet I built for this site. Ha. I have plenty of room in other cabinets... So give me a few more years and a few more sites like this one and the museum will be ready. Ha

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Great scissors and wow, everything else. I mean, Brad, these are all amazing finds man! I love seeing any Va. half penny since I've never found one, but my favorite displayed item is the "Ball and Buck"! I know they weren't found together but that's almost certainly what we're looking at. Simply amazing! Great show

Steve

I hope you don't mind my posting a wiki link about Ball and Buck and how/why/when/where it was utilized:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_and_ball

Thanks a ton Steve. I found 2 VA half cents in Dec and once I realized what they were, I had a stupid grin for the rest of the day. I got a CT copper last summer too. Now I need to stir up a NJ copper. Ha. It took me a minute to realize the dimples on the musket ball, but once I did I just thought it was awesome. I saw that x-ray Brown Bess image on the Brown Bess wiki page... That buck and ball wiki is very interesting... Oddly the x-ray shows the buck loaded behind the ball, but the the wiki says the ball was loaded behind the buck to provide a seal. Personally, I think buck behind ball would fire best and that would make sense for the dimple marks from the buck shot being compressed into the ball. I thought it might be a hunting load too, but it sounds like it might have just been antipersonal. I might have to scout a bit more at this site.