2008 starts off right. Two more old items-same area-today

Danimal · Jan 7, 2008

I haven't been posting recently but that doesn't mean I haven't been out. Looks like lots of great finds lately by TNet members too!
The freakish warm weather (went over 60deg F today) has brought hunting opportunities where there should be none.
After starting a new career a little over a month ago, I was wondering when it would be appropriate to take off at lunch and go out and detect. Coming back a little over an hour later slightly dirty and sometimes excited about a dirty coin gets some folks wondering......they just don't understand
Last year I found my oldest coin in an area near where I worked (and now work right down the road from...perfect) and hunted at lunch a lot. It was a 1792 Hibernia 1/2 cent Copper....it remains my oldest coin. Last week as weather improved and the snow melted I went back there and noticed right away that a heavy thicket right near where I found the Hibernia had died down to near nothing, allowing access to an area practically untouched. Right near the end of my 45 minute hunt I got a deep whisper that only chirpped a few VDIs past the mid 40s. In these places I'll dig nearly anything with a positive VDI. It ended up being a very old button with some of the gold gilt still attached.
As it came from the ground

Cleaned a bit

backside...Anyone see enough detail for an ID of any type..age?

Today I went back and in just shortsleeves!..right away I got a great hit and from about 6" I pulled this silver plated buckle-thingie...it has incredible detail and overall is in great shape. Again..anyone care to venture what exactly it is? Too curved to be a beltbuckle...and too heavy duty

Detail

Then as I knew I had to leave..I went back to the exact spot where I pulled that Hibernia and about 8" away I got another deep whisper in DC. ...and NOTHING at all in AC. And trust me, I've got it cranked. A quick boot scrape and then a steady 44-47 VDI.
Out popped a dark disk

Ended up after cleaning to be an 1819 LC in ok shape.

cleaned

And now here's a picture of most of the finds from last year andthe recent two days for this small spot. In the grand scheme of things it isn't much..but to me it spells a story of one settler's early life in the Western Reserve. Silver thimbles, musketshot, asst buckles a few coins and sone great old buttons (see the War of 1812 NY Militia button?)

I think my new co-workers will get used to me

HH all!!

Danimal · Jan 11, 2008

Went back to the same site again yesterday and the damn lower rod on my DFX broke! Maybe using the DFX in one hand and my post hole shovel in the other to open up areas in the briars isn't a great idea

So I went back in with the ACE250 backup. I hadn't used that machine in a LONG time.
Ended up with another old button and a beautiful old axe head.
I'll post pics of the tomorrow!

Brendan M. · Jan 12, 2008

My God, that shoe buckle is gorgeous!!! I couldn't be more envious!

Congrats and HH,
Bman

Ozzygold · Jan 12, 2008

You detect at lunchbreak? Your addicted...LOL

MONTCOPATIM · Jan 12, 2008

NICE BELT BUCKLE

ModernMiner · Jan 12, 2008

Dang Dan,
That looks like a great spot you are on to. Very neat looking button. Is that ring stamped with anything inside? I recently found a copper wedding band, and it was stamped "18k" inside. I learned they had some shady characters way back then too.

I'm looking forward to seeing that axe head.
Congrats to you,
MM
P.S. Sorry to here about the DFX shaft. That two broken White's in one week.

Colonial KirkPA · Jan 12, 2008

Nice digs, Dan. I am glad to see you have the coppa craze back.

Keep the passion high!

BDD...Kirk

Danimal · Jan 12, 2008

ModernMiner said:
Dang Dan,
That looks like a great spot you are on to. Very neat looking button. Is that ring stamped with anything inside? I recently found a copper wedding band, and it was stamped "18k" inside. I learned they had some shady characters way back then too.
I'm looking forward to seeing that axe head.
Congrats to you,
MM
P.S. Sorry to here about the DFX shaft. That two broken White's in one week.

I haven't really cleaned the inside of the ring Doug as everytime I touch it another small flake of the gold gilt comes off. Even now there's far less on it than before I cleaned it by risning it off. It looks handmade so I doubt there would be a maker's mark, but you never know.

bmanley99 said:
My God, that shoe buckle is gorgeous!!! I couldn't be more envious!

Congrats and HH,
Bman

It really is one of the nicest things I have found BMan
The detail on the simple herringbone pattern is awesome.

Ozzygold said:
You detect at lunchbreak? Your addicted...LOL

Been doing it for years! Sometimes it's just nice to get out of the office. To be a good spot it has to be 5min. or less away. I have been lucky to find several spots that fill that bill.
This spot though has some severe age to it. Whoever lived there must have been one of the first in the area. The entire area was known as the Western Reserve and was set aside as reparrations for Conneticut and NY colonists who had their homes torched by troops commanded by Benedict Arnold. He was acting under British orders because they thought those colonists were aiding the Seperatist movement. With their homes gone, a lot moved West into the area west of the PA/Ohio border. It was also called New Conneticut...and also called the "Firelands".
The folks who moved here and survived lived with Native Americans and traded and sometimes fought. All this through 1820 or so.
So that's another reason a spot like this is so special. While MILLIONS of folks lived, worked and thrived East of the PA/OH border, places with concentrations of people (who had COINS to drop) were few and far between here.

CRUSADER · Jan 12, 2008

That Georgian shoe buckle is great, I only find bits of them. Never a whole one that size & I have hundreds.

8)

ModernMiner · Jan 12, 2008

Dan,
Here is why I was asking if your ring may be stamped inside. Another TN member gave me this interesting info when I found my copper "18K" ring. Enjoy.
-Doug-

i think that your 18K may be real based on a 125 year old bracelet i found in Smithfield.
Here`s 2 pics and some dirt i dug up on old AU jewelry. I have the original web site link if you would like it.

The 1840s also saw the development of two techniques that would prove vitally important to the manufacture of inexpensive jewelry, which was beginning on a large scale in the U.S. and was already well under way in Birmingham, England. The first technique was electroplating, developed and patented in 1840 by the Elkingtons of Birmingham. The deposition of precious metal onto base metal using a direct electrical current was cheaper and much less dangerous than the age-old process of mercury gilding, though not as durable.

The second important process was rolled goldplating, brought to the U.S. from Great Britain in 1848. It was a big hit with New England jewelry manufacturers. Unlike electroplating, which is applied to a finished base metal article, rolled gold is a mechanical process for sheet and wire that is then used to manufacture a finished piece. The technique was derived from Sheffield plate, developed more than a century earlier, which is copper clad with silver and rolled to the desired thickness. Rolled gold is copper or brass clad with gold, also known as “gold-filled” in the United States. The metal “sandwich” was treated exactly the same as karat gold – stamped, engraved and fashioned into pieces that were identical in appearance to their solid gold counterparts. The French began to use the technique in the 1820s, calling it doublé d’or.