1st 4.5 hrs @ 1865 house - S, M, L Silver! A key date? Need help...

[Jaichim24]

A co-worker just bought a new property that dates to around 1865 and I recently received permission to detect. So I headed out last Sunday and Tuesday and managed to get in 4.5 hours. I concentrated mainly on the front yard, it wasn't too big, perhaps 35' X 60', but it was packed with old wheat pennies. The merc was the first, then the no date SL quarter. I ended up finding the walker half on the side of the house between it and the gravel driveway. Needless to say I was pretty excited about it, that makes this year’s walker half dollar total at 7!

I immediately realized it must be old as I saw that it had a mint mark on the obverse, an "S"! I couldn't see anything remaining from the date, but it has to be either 1916 or 1917. A big dollar difference between 16' and 17'. On closer inspection, I noticed right where the 6 or 7 should be that there appears to be a remnant of the number left. It is either the top part of the 6 or the bottom part of the 7. Give how straight it is, and the location away from lady liberty's foot I'm leaning towards it being a 7 unfortunately. However, it is really worn, so who knows that the number 6 would look like. I'm interested in hearing from others on what they think it is. I put a cropped picture of the date area, along with some pictures I Googled and found of the 16 and 17 S versions. Let me know what you think.

Also, does anyone have a feel for how old the lead soldier is, what war or era it is depicting?

The broach/decorative item next to the soldier, the center appeared to have perhaps a cameo in it? It looks like it melted, but there isn't any noticable fire/heat damage to the copper. Does anyone know what this is? I rubbed it against my teeth and it felt like stone more than it did plastic.

The item with a pat date of 1881, is that from an accordion?

Thanks for looking.

Jai

 

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[sniffer]

that looks like it turned out to be a great site. any thoughts of going back ?

 

[Jaichim24]

Actually, I ended up returning there yesterday and detected another 4.5 hours. I ended up with 4 wheaties, 1 1879 IH, and a bunch of cool relics from various dates. I'm still in the process of cleaning and getting them ready for pictures. Probably tomorrow at some time.

 

[BobinSouthVA]

Looks like a great spot.

looks like a 7 to me. I know how it feels though, had the same dilema with a SLQ 1916/1917 last week. Turned out to be a 1917

Can't wait to see what else you recover.

 

[SGVALLEYMAN]

Very nice..lots of good finds there !!

Congrats & HH

Scott

 

[Bunker]

Great finds, thanks for posting. Look forward to seeing more!!
Good Luck,
Bunker

 

[creeper71]

I think you should take another look at your 1916 S I'm fairly certian that is G-4 an not AG....

 

[Wldbil]

Congrats on some great finds...

 

[Potter Poker]

Remarkable find!!

 

[Nick A]

The 7 looks fairly clear on your coin. Congrats on some great finds!

 

[goldencoin]

Try not rubbing the silver straight out of the ground, it tends to leave scratches! Neat Finds!

HH
-GC

 

[Justice70]

Try taking some measurements like from the back of lady libertys heel to where the bottom part of the seven would end up at toward the top, then do the same for where the top part of the 6 would end up. I think just by looking that the top part of 6 is closer to libertys heel than the bottom part of 7.

 

[Jaichim24]

Try not rubbing the silver straight out of the ground, it tends to leave scratches! Neat Finds!

HH
-GC

Oh, I never rub after a find, the coins go straight into a plastic bottle with water after I find them. The half dollar only was cleaned with soap and water, no real rubbing. The quarter and dime got cleaned with toothpaste and water, which may have caused some micro abrasions, which seem more apparent after the pictures were taken.

All that being said, I can see scratches on the half that look "fresh" not sure what caused them, but I was as careful as possible with it. Unfortunately I think some scratches may occur in the plastic bottle and water as more than one coin will slide around. Other than stopping and running back to my car and placing a freshly recovered silver coin I'm not sure what else to do.

What do you all do with your silver to keep down the scratching?

 

[DirtMan1]

Nice Finds

 

[goldencoin]

Try not rubbing the silver straight out of the ground, it tends to leave scratches! Neat Finds!

HH
-GC

Oh, I never rub after a find, the coins go straight into a plastic bottle with water after I find them. The half dollar only was cleaned with soap and water, no real rubbing. The quarter and dime got cleaned with toothpaste and water, which may have caused some micro abrasions, which seem more apparent after the pictures were taken.

All that being said, I can see scratches on the half that look "fresh" not sure what caused them, but I was as careful as possible with it. Unfortunately I think some scratches may occur in the plastic bottle and water as more than one coin will slide around. Other than stopping and running back to my car and placing a freshly recovered silver coin I'm not sure what else to do.

What do you all do with your silver to keep down the scratching?

Well, I just calls them as I sees them, but it is great to know you're trying to prevent it. What I do is rinse it with a little water I carry around and then put the coin into a medicine bottle stuffed with cotton balls. If you keep the cotton balls wet, it'll prevent the silver from oxidizing in the air. It seems to work pretty good. The scratches are probably caused by the toothpaste, I have heard that baking soda works pretty well if you want to clean it up a bit, but I don't like to clean them much more than a rinse, unless it is in very bad shape. Keep it up!

HH
-GC