paleomaxx
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Had a great time at an old homesite in the woods. I had scouted it earlier this summer, but we finally had some rain so I could properly grid it. It's a very small spot nestled between rock ledges so there isn't much ground to cover and most spots are infested with iron. I managed quite a few nice relics and the largest aggregation of pewter from any one spot I've been to:
Many of the pieces, including one of the spoon fragments, show clear marks from being cut with shears so I suspect they may have been doing pewter casting and these were lost pieces of scrap. That might explain the beautiful, but roughly cast, bridle rosette I found:
I love finding rosettes, but the pewter ones tend to get chewed up by ground action so it was nice to find one with very little ground flaking and some of the silver wash still intact!
The best find of the day though was a few feet away going down a slope.
It took some research to nail it down, but it appears to be the upper band from a scabbard; either a sabre or a dagger. It's thick brass so it was cast and then polished as opposed to sheet brass that was brazed together. I'm not sure on the age though and unfortunately there are no marking etched into it but I did find a similar one associated with an 1820's naval dagger and the manner of construction matches the time period. Here's the photo:
Not an exact match, but it gives you an idea of where this piece would have gone. If anyone recognizes which sabre or dagger this would go to I would be extremely interested! No military buttons have turned up at this spot yet, but now I have a feeling there are some hiding.
There were a bunch of other cool relics around:
The harmonica reed is the longest intact one I've recovered so far and the bell still has some of the leather attached! Otherwise, it's mostly the usual post civil war artifacts. Only one coin turned up which was a little sad since I thought this spot would be awesome for lost coinage.
It's an 1808 classic head large cent worn down to almost nothing, but at least the date was legible!
I'm really excited about that scabbard piece and hopefully I can find more of their uniform to narrow down the field and match it to a name. Even if I can't, this is still one of my better relics of the season!
Many of the pieces, including one of the spoon fragments, show clear marks from being cut with shears so I suspect they may have been doing pewter casting and these were lost pieces of scrap. That might explain the beautiful, but roughly cast, bridle rosette I found:
I love finding rosettes, but the pewter ones tend to get chewed up by ground action so it was nice to find one with very little ground flaking and some of the silver wash still intact!
The best find of the day though was a few feet away going down a slope.
It took some research to nail it down, but it appears to be the upper band from a scabbard; either a sabre or a dagger. It's thick brass so it was cast and then polished as opposed to sheet brass that was brazed together. I'm not sure on the age though and unfortunately there are no marking etched into it but I did find a similar one associated with an 1820's naval dagger and the manner of construction matches the time period. Here's the photo:
Not an exact match, but it gives you an idea of where this piece would have gone. If anyone recognizes which sabre or dagger this would go to I would be extremely interested! No military buttons have turned up at this spot yet, but now I have a feeling there are some hiding.
There were a bunch of other cool relics around:
The harmonica reed is the longest intact one I've recovered so far and the bell still has some of the leather attached! Otherwise, it's mostly the usual post civil war artifacts. Only one coin turned up which was a little sad since I thought this spot would be awesome for lost coinage.
It's an 1808 classic head large cent worn down to almost nothing, but at least the date was legible!
I'm really excited about that scabbard piece and hopefully I can find more of their uniform to narrow down the field and match it to a name. Even if I can't, this is still one of my better relics of the season!
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