paleomaxx
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- Joined
- Aug 14, 2016
- Messages
- 841
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- Golden Thread
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- Location
- Upstate, NY
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 6
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- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
These finds are the result of several multi-hour hunts on a new spot. The area was just cleared of brush which is excellent for covering every inch of ground, but this is a huge site so I'm nowhere near done. The other cool part of the ground being disturbed is that there pottery fragments sitting right on the surface all over the place. I only grabbed a handful, but there's some pretty stuff:
The brown glass square bottle fragment in particular looks like it's fairly old. The odd part about this home site is the sheer amount of lead pipe in the ground. Almost every other target was a section or fragment of lead pipe. At first I thought it was just the plumbing getting spread around by the tractors, but many of the sections are cut or otherwise modified:
By the end of the hunts I had accumulated over 15 pounds of the stuff and that's not including a 3' section that didn't fit in the photo. Several fragments have solder joints that were started and then stopped so I'm thinking that a plumber may have lived here and had a workshop. Some sections of pipe were even hammered into balls or rough cubes so I guess he would fool around with bits when he was bored.
I did find biscuit of lead stock with a "T" stamped in the middle. Probably some of his rough stock that he had for casting joints. I assume the "T" is from the smelter but that's not much to go on.
I found a bunch of buttons all spread around. No dandies, but several nice tombacs and one 2-piece.
The small tombac with the geometric design etched into it is my favorite. There were surprisingly few buckles around, but I did find one that's a first for me:
I know it's not whole, but I finally have a neck stock buckle! I'll keep looking for the rest of it, but so far no luck and no shoe buckles have turned up which is very odd.
Tons of colonial coins though. Several coppers, but they're all in pretty bad shape.
Left to right is a draped bust LC, 1771 KGIII half penny, and last is a KGII half penny. I did manage one state copper:
It's a 1788 Vermont copper and in slightly better shape than the others. Not much left to the reverse, but the date is visible at the right angle. A few 1800's coins also turned up:
Two shield nickels which is rare for me, an 1857 flying eagle cent, 1890 IHP, and a 1901 IHP. The best and most surprising coin though is the Spanish silver 1 Real.
It's well worn so obviously it was in circulation for awhile, but I'm fairly sure it's a 1726. My first half pistareen and by far my new oldest silver. Again, not something I expected to dig around here since it predates the settlement of the town by 30+ years, and this homesite is at the oldest 1780.
Despite how awesome finding that was, it's still a toss up for the best find since about 15 feet away I found this:
An anchor cufflink! From my research I know they weren't part of the uniform, but instead usually custom ordered by retired naval officer's for their civilian dress. Definitely my best cufflink find to date and hopefully this means there are some naval buttons to be found.
The rest of the site had no shortage of finds covering the usual homesite relics:
Lots of iron including the two chisel like pieces that I really like. The brass comb is another first and the silver-washed harness buckle is gorgeous. There were a few mystery/odd pieces too.
The piece on the right is a finial of some sort, but the one on the left was a cap to something. There's still some wood inside and the iron pin that attached it. It's very thick brass and from the casting I would guess late 1700's to early 1800's.
Last is this off copper sheet with rivets. It's not flat so I don't think it's off a roof. Almost looks like it was attached to leather, but that's just a guess.
The ground around the site is frozen again, but I'll definitely be back to see what else is hiding. Hopefully by removing all the lead I can start to pick up deeper targets and if I'm lucky there's more old silver to be found!
The brown glass square bottle fragment in particular looks like it's fairly old. The odd part about this home site is the sheer amount of lead pipe in the ground. Almost every other target was a section or fragment of lead pipe. At first I thought it was just the plumbing getting spread around by the tractors, but many of the sections are cut or otherwise modified:
By the end of the hunts I had accumulated over 15 pounds of the stuff and that's not including a 3' section that didn't fit in the photo. Several fragments have solder joints that were started and then stopped so I'm thinking that a plumber may have lived here and had a workshop. Some sections of pipe were even hammered into balls or rough cubes so I guess he would fool around with bits when he was bored.
I did find biscuit of lead stock with a "T" stamped in the middle. Probably some of his rough stock that he had for casting joints. I assume the "T" is from the smelter but that's not much to go on.
I found a bunch of buttons all spread around. No dandies, but several nice tombacs and one 2-piece.
The small tombac with the geometric design etched into it is my favorite. There were surprisingly few buckles around, but I did find one that's a first for me:
I know it's not whole, but I finally have a neck stock buckle! I'll keep looking for the rest of it, but so far no luck and no shoe buckles have turned up which is very odd.
Tons of colonial coins though. Several coppers, but they're all in pretty bad shape.
Left to right is a draped bust LC, 1771 KGIII half penny, and last is a KGII half penny. I did manage one state copper:
It's a 1788 Vermont copper and in slightly better shape than the others. Not much left to the reverse, but the date is visible at the right angle. A few 1800's coins also turned up:
Two shield nickels which is rare for me, an 1857 flying eagle cent, 1890 IHP, and a 1901 IHP. The best and most surprising coin though is the Spanish silver 1 Real.
It's well worn so obviously it was in circulation for awhile, but I'm fairly sure it's a 1726. My first half pistareen and by far my new oldest silver. Again, not something I expected to dig around here since it predates the settlement of the town by 30+ years, and this homesite is at the oldest 1780.
Despite how awesome finding that was, it's still a toss up for the best find since about 15 feet away I found this:
An anchor cufflink! From my research I know they weren't part of the uniform, but instead usually custom ordered by retired naval officer's for their civilian dress. Definitely my best cufflink find to date and hopefully this means there are some naval buttons to be found.
The rest of the site had no shortage of finds covering the usual homesite relics:
Lots of iron including the two chisel like pieces that I really like. The brass comb is another first and the silver-washed harness buckle is gorgeous. There were a few mystery/odd pieces too.
The piece on the right is a finial of some sort, but the one on the left was a cap to something. There's still some wood inside and the iron pin that attached it. It's very thick brass and from the casting I would guess late 1700's to early 1800's.
Last is this off copper sheet with rivets. It's not flat so I don't think it's off a roof. Almost looks like it was attached to leather, but that's just a guess.
The ground around the site is frozen again, but I'll definitely be back to see what else is hiding. Hopefully by removing all the lead I can start to pick up deeper targets and if I'm lucky there's more old silver to be found!
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