A Buckle I Need Some Help on and an 1817 LC

[paleomaxx]

Today was a short hunt and I didn't expect to find much under 4" of snow, but I was surprised how deep the signals were coming up from. This buckle was 8-10" under the dirt plus the snow and it's the first of it's kind that I've seen so I thought I'd ask the experts!



The buckle itself looks to be copper, but had a silver finish at one point. The crazy thing is that the silver was so thick that it corroded off and stayed intact, so I have all of the strips of silver that made up the finish. It was fancy looking too as you can see in the closeup photos.



The LC is 1817 and is in very good condition for this soil. It raises some questions though since I was very sure based on the maps that this homestead was built between 1850-1860. This coin has almost no sign of wear so I don't think it would have been in circulation for 30+ years. Between this and a stray dandy button I'm starting to think that this site was missed in the early Beers maps and is older than the first appearance.

My other question is on the pewter spoon handle maker's mark. I can't make it out, but does anyone recognize it?

 

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[Bass]

Great finds. The coin is a nice one

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Nice old copper and cool relics!

 

[Scrappy]

Silver faced and pewter faced buckles were common enough. That buckle probably dates to the latter part of the 18th century, say 1770-1790

 

[paleomaxx]

Silver faced and pewter faced buckles were common enough. That buckle probably dates to the latter part of the 18th century, say 1770-1790

Interesting, any idea how the silver was applied? I've been looking closer at it and there appears to be a residue layer between the copper and silver. At first I thought it was copper salts, but it almost looks like an interface layer of a third material. Also, this is probably a dumb question, but is this buckle from a shoe?

 

[CRUSADER]

Interesting, any idea how the silver was applied? I've been looking closer at it and there appears to be a residue layer between the copper and silver. At first I thought it was copper salts, but it almost looks like an interface layer of a third material. Also, this is probably a dumb question, but is this buckle from a shoe?

I believe they used Mercury as a bonding agent, so that could be what your seeing.

Without looking it up I think this Georgian Shoe Buckle has a wider date range of 1720-90.

 

[trapperart]

Nice finds congrats

 

[Trezurehunter]

Very nice.