Another crotal bell for the collection

[toasted]

Short hunt after work and I was about to be skunked on my early colonial site(minus one drilled shank tombac) when a nice little crotal bell revealed itself. Ive now found six complete ones over the years plus five more that had an iron mounting tab. I assume the ones with iron tabs are not as old but I really dont know.

 

[Noah_D]

MSpeiser...finding one of these is on my bucket list. Is there a strategy for locating these? old paths? barns? fields? or random luck?

The first one I found was not super old... 1900s. I found it in a ploughed garden, the garden is usually just part of the yard so I don't think there is in significance of where I found it (unless there was something else there a while back). The second one I found is a bit older, early-mid 1800s, I found it in the front yard of a 1910ish farmhouse. It was found in the same area as the penny in my profile pic and an old skeleton key. There is an early 1800s site somewhere nearby so I think I might be near the spot. So I guess I just chanced upon two of them my first year of detecting. I don't know about anyone else though.