🥇 BANNER 18th Century Silver Stock Buckle, Lock Plate, And a Few Other Goodies.

JSM1986 · Dec 30, 2016

I've been on a 3 month long break from metal detecting, and got the itch to go out today. I'm glad I did. I found what I believe to be a 1700s era stock buckle. Its made out of silver and has a makers mark of DR which is the intials of a silversmith named Daniel Rogers from Ipswich, MA. I also found large cent (date unreadable), a dandy button, a sweet looking lock plate, some kind of pull knob, thimble, musket balls, and a flat button with writing on the back that says warranted orange rich. Can anyone tell me how much the buckle may be worth? Thanks for looking!

JSM1986 · Jan 4, 2017

Thats where I got my info from. When I further researched his name I found that he practiced silversmithing from 1753-1792 wich would make it at a maximum of 264 years old and a minimum of 225
years old. Does anyone know how I should preserve it. All i've done so far is a light rinse with water to get the excess dirt off.

able_walker · Jan 4, 2017

ghp95134 said:
Another or his for comparrison. Source Historic New England

--Guy

EDIT: Yowch! I just noticed that able_walker posted the same link in post #39. Sorry 'bout that, Chief!

lol...It's all good...here's another...$450.00 ask for one of his spoons.
COIN SILVER TABLESPOON IPSWICH,MA DANIEL ROGERS 1755 (item #1050779)

Ahab8 · Jan 5, 2017

JSM1986 said:
Thats where I got my info from. When I further researched his name I found that he practiced silversmithing from 1753-1792 wich would make it at a maximum of 264 years old and a minimum of 225
years old. Does anyone know how I should preserve it. All i've done so far is a light rinse with water to get the excess dirt off.

Lucky for you it's silver which is much easier to deal with than most other metals. It's hard to tell if there's still some loose dirt that can easily be removed or if it's got some staining on it. My choice for silver is always a light lemon juice bath and a soft toothbrush....but I likely would t be doing much to that beauty other than getting any of the loose dirt off. Congrats on an incredible item

Valley Ranger · Jan 5, 2017

Epic find. Congratulations. Indiana Jones would be jealous.

Lowman · Jan 5, 2017

My wife is laughing at us cuz we like the buckle... Hey that buckle is awesome!

Lowman · Jan 5, 2017

Scrappy said:
Congrats on the banner find. I'm happy to see it up there. Any neck stock buckle find is rare, but a silver one is remarkable. I've only found small pieces of copper ones.

What is with that cross on that stone? That is cool....

CRUSADER · Jan 6, 2017

Ahab8 said:
Lucky for you it's silver which is much easier to deal with than most other metals. It's hard to tell if there's still some loose dirt that can easily be removed or if it's got some staining on it. My choice for silver is always a light lemon juice bath and a soft toothbrush....but I likely would t be doing much to that beauty other than getting any of the loose dirt off. Congrats on an incredible item

In this instance it needs nothing. Do nothing more.
Even the use of lemon juice which I use a lot is NOT a good idea on this piece because your only concern is if the steel pins that pivot it break & Lemon Juice may encourage this.
PS. Unless you can see that the pins are silver as well, but I think it unusual.

birdman · Jan 6, 2017

That is one awesome buckle. Never seen a silver one. Someone was hurt when they lost that one.

Aureus · Jan 6, 2017

Awesome finds!

JSM1986 · Jan 6, 2017

CRUSADER said:
In this instance it needs nothing. Do nothing more.
Even the use of lemon juice which I use a lot is NOT a good idea on this piece because your only concern is if the steel pins that pivot it break & Lemon Juice may encourage this.
PS. Unless you can see that the pins are silver as well, but I think it unusual.

I believe the pin is silver. I will have to check when I get home. I dont really want to clean it. I just want to make aure it stays in good shape for the years to come.

CRUSADER · Jan 6, 2017

JSM1986 said:
I believe the pin is silver. I will have to check when I get home. I dont really want to clean it. I just want to make aure it stays in good shape for the years to come.

Solid silver will be fine if left, over cleaning will kill it & over a very long period it may gain a cabinet tone that is attractive.

montcalm · Jan 6, 2017

Incredible find Cong! in such a nice shape cherry on the cake!Usually those are shoe buckle but not sure about yours. A friend of mine found one down here in Quebec was the same era but a different model.To your insurance this should be estimated a minimum of on k and even more. You could think to let it in a museum one day would be preserved for ever.

OutdoorAdv · Jan 6, 2017

JSM1986 said:
I believe the pin is silver. I will have to check when I get home. I dont really want to clean it. I just want to make aure it stays in good shape for the years to come.

Since its silver, its rather inert being out of the dirt. I'd just wipe my finger prints off it after holding, before putting it back in the display, and it should be fine. But if the pin is iron like Cru mentioned, that's a different story and I don't know what the proper solution would be to keep the pin from rusting. If the pin is silver or brass, its totally fine though.

JSM1986 · Jan 6, 2017

Ok, thanks guys for the info.

OutdoorAdv · Jan 6, 2017

JSM1986 said:
Ok, thanks guys for the info.

I should add that Ahab8 has dug a LOT of complete shoe buckles. He can verify, but I think the pins are brass in the ones he has that survived intact. Since your stock buckle is complete, it makes me think the pin is silver or brass... or if it is iron, the soil was very kind and didn't oxidize it too bad.

JSM1986 · Jan 6, 2017

OutdoorAdv said:
I should add that Ahab8 has dug a LOT of complete shoe buckles. He can verify, but I think the pins are brass in the ones he has that survived intact. Since your stock buckle is complete, it makes me think the pin is silver or brass... or if it is iron, the soil was very kind and didn't oxidize it too bad.

I'm almost positive its silver. Here's a pic. There's still some residual dirt on it.

Ahab8 · Jan 7, 2017

CRUSADER said:
In this instance it needs nothing. Do nothing more.
Even the use of lemon juice which I use a lot is NOT a good idea on this piece because your only concern is if the steel pins that pivot it break & Lemon Juice may encourage this.
PS. Unless you can see that the pins are silver as well, but I think it unusual.

Agreed 100%. I just reread my reply and it wasn't as clear as it should have been. We as humans seem to have this need to make everything just a little bit better and a little bit cleaner and a little bit shinier. It's the worst thing you can do in this hobby. It's such a fine line between ruining an incredible artifact and just making it presentable and getting the dirt or corrosion off it. Anytime I find an old silver coin they came out so black that you can hardly see any detail. I use lemon juice but just enough to make a bit of detail pop and still keep that black toning that screams old silver. I hate seeing old silver that shines like it's been polished. Your incredible neck stock Buckle came out with a really nice look to it. I believe the pin is silver as well which I'm guessing is fairly uncommon but Cru is better equipped to answer that. So leave that beauty alone and thank the detecting gods that they gave you silver. Sometimes I actually feel bad for folks that find killer early pewter or brass/copper finds that don't look great. It brings up a very tough choice as to what you need to do in the way of cleaning/conservation. My feeling have evolved into this. If it's not super rare or valuable and it looks like crap I will usually attempt to enhance the look a bit. I've done it with several coins. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. But having an ugly blob of crap that you can't display never works for me....it just motivates me to find a better more appealing example. You are so fortunate that you got the best of all worlds!!!!

DIE HARD · Jan 14, 2017

JSM1986 said:
I've been on a 3 month long break from metal detecting, and got the itch to go out today. I'm glad I did. I found what I believe to be a 1700s era stock buckle. Its made out of silver and has a makers mark of DR which is the intials of a silversmith named Daniel Rogers from Ipswich, MA. I also found large cent (date unreadable), a dandy button, a sweet looking lock plate, some kind of pull knob, thimble, musket balls, and a flat button with writing on the back that says warranted orange rich. Can anyone tell me how much the buckle may be worth? Thanks for looking!

what is a stock buckle?