1917 Merc w/Full Split Bands? & the nicest cellar holes I’ve seen

DownEast_Detecting

Sr. Member
Feb 26, 2020
428
1,101
Maine
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Garrett AT Pro, Minelab CTX 3030
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Didn't have much time today after work. So i decided to just drive to a few cellar holes i have marked in Gaia as potential sites. Just to see how i would access them or who i would have to ask for permission. I drove down a road that's 10 minutes away from where i live, that i have apparently never been on. When i got to where the old road was to the site. I was very pleased to find out, that a new nature walking path had been put in. Its maintained by the same group i got permission from to hunt other walks. (They said i could hunt any of the walks they maintain, as long as i show them all my finds. And they can keep anything they deem "historical") I just never new this new one was here. So i grabbed my detector and headed in. I assume that they dug out these cellar holes recently because they dont show up like they should on my Maine lidar from 2019. (see below) ones in this good of condition and this large should show up on lidar like no body's business. (I marked this as a potential site because one house shows up on an old topo map. And isnt there on newer ones.)

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Red Circle foundation. it has 3 of those little "roofed" in sections. What are these called? and what are they for? little root cellars?
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Yellow circle foundation that i could not find on any maps
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So i noticed someone else had been digging inside them and some iron was up on the foundation wall. But there is still so much iron and other junk inside them, i wasn't about to start clearing them out. So i just detected in the field next to the first one for an hour. (red circle) All i came up with was a 1917 Mercury Dime and Flat Button. The button still had all its gilt on the back. So i was happy with some silver and a button.
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DownEast_Detecting

DownEast_Detecting

Sr. Member
Feb 26, 2020
428
1,101
Maine
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro, Minelab CTX 3030
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Could those be ovens? Looks like it should be a "target rich environment".
i have no idea, im hoping someone on here does. Ive seen them in other cellars before. I always thought they were just little storage areas. but why have the rock ceiling when the floor from the house would be right there. Yes the floor inside the foundations had targets every where, but the ones that were not iron had to clean and loud sounds for me to dig. Im assuming tin cans and lead waste and such. someday ill clean all the junk out.
 

Digger RJ

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Aug 24, 2017
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SW Missouri/Oklahoma
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Didn't have much time today after work. So i decided to just drive to a few cellar holes i have marked in Gaia as potential sites. Just to see how i would access them or who i would have to ask for permission. I drove down a road that's 10 minutes away from where i live, that i have apparently never been on. When i got to where the old road was to the site. I was very pleased to find out, that a new nature walking path had been put in. Its maintained by the same group i got permission from to hunt other walks. (They said i could hunt any of the walks they maintain, as long as i show them all my finds. And they can keep anything they deem "historical") I just never new this new one was here. So i grabbed my detector and headed in. I assume that they dug out these cellar holes recently because they dont show up like they should on my Maine lidar from 2019. (see below) ones in this good of condition and this large should show up on lidar like no body's business. (I marked this as a potential site because one house shows up on an old topo map. And isnt there on newer ones.)

View attachment 2098105 View attachment 2098104 View attachment 2098106


Red Circle foundation. it has 3 of those little "roofed" in sections. What are these called? and what are they for? little root cellars?
View attachment 2098107 View attachment 2098108 View attachment 2098109 View attachment 2098110
View attachment 2098112 View attachment 2098111


Yellow circle foundation that i could not find on any maps
View attachment 2098113 View attachment 2098114


So i noticed someone else had been digging inside them and some iron was up on the foundation wall. But there is still so much iron and other junk inside them, i wasn't about to start clearing them out. So i just detected in the field next to the first one for an hour. (red circle) All i came up with was a 1917 Mercury Dime and Flat Button. The button still had all its gilt on the back. So i was happy with some silver and a button.
View attachment 2098115 View attachment 2098117 View attachment 2098116 View attachment 2098101
View attachment 2098123
Very Nice!!! Congrats!!!
 

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DownEast_Detecting

DownEast_Detecting

Sr. Member
Feb 26, 2020
428
1,101
Maine
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro, Minelab CTX 3030
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Looks like a banded mercury dime to me. Nice finds.
i did notice it was in good shape, but didn't know about the banded thing. After googling it, my coin sure seems to fit that classification. So it might be worth some money if it wasnt a dug coin?
 

Almy

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Mar 18, 2011
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The rock work is intriguing. Some dry laid and fitted by choosing stones rather than working the rocks. The long, rectangular ones look like they were broken off bedrock and perhaps shaped in a quarry. The tops of the unknown ovens or root cellars look like sandstone. It took a lot of work to put that all together. There had to have been important purpose for all of it. It will be intriguing to try to find out the reasons. It sure looks like a site that has relics and coins, but you never know. I've found some undetected sites that should be full of them and not found a thing. I concluded that those who lived there either were poor or very good being tidy and then at cleaning things out when they left.
 

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DownEast_Detecting

DownEast_Detecting

Sr. Member
Feb 26, 2020
428
1,101
Maine
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro, Minelab CTX 3030
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The rock work is intriguing. Some dry laid and fitted by choosing stones rather than working the rocks. The long, rectangular ones look like they were broken off bedrock and perhaps shaped in a quarry. The tops of the unknown ovens or root cellars look like sandstone. It took a lot of work to put that all together. There had to have been important purpose for all of it. It will be intriguing to try to find out the reasons. It sure looks like a site that has relics and coins, but you never know. I've found some undetected sites that should be full of them and not found a thing. I concluded that those who lived there either were poor or very good being tidy and then at cleaning things out when they left.
yeah i can only imagine how much work this would be especially back then. I agree with the long "toppers" along the top of the foundation being cut or shaped. And the little roofs just look like huge sorta flat natural stones. Are there any reference sites/books that deal with dating foundations by the stone work or construction methods that you know of?
 

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DownEast_Detecting

DownEast_Detecting

Sr. Member
Feb 26, 2020
428
1,101
Maine
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT Pro, Minelab CTX 3030
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
A great looking site !
Yeah, although it looks to have been hunted before that's never stopped me from pulling some nice stuff.

Im excited because the people who lived in the first cellar hole were very wealthy. In case anybody didn't see What are these structures inside of cellar holes? over in "what it is". Those structures turned out to be chimney/fireplace support foundations. So with 3 fireplaces in the house, as well as the granite toppers on top of the stone foundation. This people were ballin!
 

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