Found a nice big crotal bell 7/13/2012

hammong

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Found my first "Crotal" bell 7/13/2012

My detecting buddy Gordon secured a nice hilly farm spot to hunt near Union Bridge, MD, and we hit the field today for a few hours to see what we could come up with. Previously, he and another friend had found a 1840s large cent an a number of flat buttons. About 25 minutes into the hunt today, I got a solid mid 50s VDI on my V3, and this is what I got... Appears to be a late 1700s to mid-1800s crotal bell from the resources I've seen online. Marked "No" and "7" on the bottom (supposedly sized 1 7/8") and what might be a "IM" and a dot, or perhaps a dot and "WI" on the top near the flange, but that part is harder to make out and may be due to surface erosion. It's made out of a copper-bearing white metal alloy, and the iron ball striker is still intact inside! Sounds really nice. =)

Greg
 

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Very nice bell, what did you use to clean it? It looks really sharp!
 

Cleaned it with hot water and a scotch brite pad. Not much patina on it to begin with, so no loss there. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out too!
 

Congrats. One of my favorite things to find. Numbered bells are nice.

Don
HH
 

usually they are brass - some may be bronze
some are silver plated or older have a silver wash-which may be what yours has
 

Nice bell. Only ever found a broken bell in Maryland.
 

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