Huge Bucket Lister For Me....Luckenbooth Silver Trade Brooch

[Ahab8]

First off let me just say that this Luckenbooth brooch is something I have always wanted to find. I have never obsessed about it like some other things because you rarely see them pop up and it's something that I knew I may never dig. A lot of my Scottish ancestors settled in this area and my mom and I have talked about how cool it would be to find one of these brooches. Now for the very strange coincidence. It was just the other day that Patriot dug one of these as well as an antler. Well I too dug an antler today as well as an iron shoe and a tiny shoe buckle frame. I also dug the guts of a shoe buckle, a destroyed colonial cufflink and a more modern link as well. But enough about that stuff....let's talk about the Luckenbooth brooch. I was hunting for a super early site (1660-1688) and having zero luck finding anything. Then I got into a small iron patch and got a crappy signal that had some iron mixed in. I knew it was deep but figured it was a deep nail. dug about 10" plug and that baby came out of the bottom. It took a minute for it to hit me. It didn't look silver when it came out and I wasn't quite sure if it was colonial. I figured it was early with the crown on top and started to believe it could possibly be Luckenbooth but didn't want to get my hopes up only to be disappointed. I texted Scrappy and OutdoorAdv and eventually it was confirmed that it likely was what I hoped it was. I still didn't allow myself to believe it was silver though.
Finally I got home and rubbed a little lemon juice on it. Sure enough it cleaned up great and I knew it was early silver. Super psyched to have found this and even more psyched to give it to my mom who will truly appreciate it. Thanks for listening to my rambling guys

 

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[Ahab8]

Beautiful find! Can't believe two of these were posted so close together! Love that old silver! Definitely not a common find. I'll share mine even though I put it in the other thread. Figured you might like to see some other examples. Mines a different style obviously and dates to 1760.

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Thank you for posting that again. I would actually love to see other examples that people have dug. How scarce are these brooches? I don't seem to remember many posted. Awesome that you were able to date yours my friend. And yes pretty odd that I find mine right after Patriots was found.

 

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[Ahab8]

I'm all smiles for you over in The Grants, Abe. What an exquisite and meaningful find on every level.

As a speculative aside on synchronicity, just what do you think the chances are of you finding both an antler and a 300 year old brooch on the same hunt within a week of The Patriot? This sure beats the hell out of a lightning strike : )

Ha thank you Ken. Yes this sure beats a lightning strike. I never actually found what I was looking for but this will do just fine until I find that super early site. You just never know what you might walk into out in the woods. This is a great example of hitting a random early iron patch. Another cabin site that I've come to love so much. Hopefully The Patriot posts up a colonial gold coin this week [emoji3]

 

[Ahab8]

Holy #@*$! Huge congrats on an epic find!

Thank you UnderMiner. Those were my words exactly lol. Good thing I don't video my hunts because a lot of bad words come out when I make a good find. Guess I'm a bit of a pirate

 

[Ahab8]

Great find man! Love the early silver items! The fact you have heritage connections makes it that much better! I say banner! Thanks for sharing and good luck and HH

My Maine friend....yup this is a special one. I've found a lot of Spanish silver coins but to get an early silver personal piece is pretty special to me. I'm looking forward to seeing more posts from you. Your research has really been in point bud

 

[treblehunter]

Nice find bud, at least you have been hunting without the drama of near death experiences, nice digs.

 

[The Patriot]

I sure hope I post a gold coin real soon...so you can get yours.. LOL

Ha thank you Ken. Yes this sure beats a lightning strike. I never actually found what I was looking for but this will do just fine until I find that super early site. You just never know what you might walk into out in the woods. This is a great example of hitting a random early iron patch. Another cabin site that I've come to love so much. Hopefully The Patriot posts up a colonial gold coin this week [emoji3]

 

[CTwoods]

I would actually love to see other examples that people have dug. How scarce are these brooches? I don't seem to remember many posted. Awesome that you were able to date yours my friend..

I'm not on the forums as much as others over the last 15+ years, but I'd say yours is a very rare find.

The most striking/awesome notable thing about yours (to me), is that yours really shows the actual hand-working with different types of iron punches. You can imagine what the tools looked like. Anything of this era that has obvious personal hand made details has always been special to me. I'm not saying I'd turn down an early fancy cast pewter spoon, but I really appreciate hand work details on early items....and add to that fact, that it is early silver jewelry, really knocks it out of the park.


15+ years ago, when I found my Witches Heart, it took a long time to research what it was, because there were so few websites to cover these, or get a rough date even.

I posted it on the old Treasure Depot Site then, and one guy from Salem Mass said he has the same silversmithed design on a silver knee buckle found in Salem. He said they must have both been made by the same unknown Boston silversmith, but that is kind of a stretch

mine was found on rough hilly rocky land, nowhere near a cellar. It was one of many days when I asked myself: "why am I hunting here"? ...and then got the high tone! The iron hinge pin was rusted with the latch bar fully open from when it was lost, I guess. The pin crumbled apart, so that is a wood toothpick in these pics

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Congrats again buddy on that awesome recovery. I can't wait to hear what your Mom's reaction is. Please let us know when that moment happens ....

 

[Ahab8]

Wow...that's really nice!

I had to wiki it to see what it was. Being a sweetheart item, you may be able to find the potential original owner by marriage certificates at that location.

Great thought my friend....but that's gonna be tough as this is one of those unmapped early cabin sites that you have to be super lucky to find. But I will see what I can find out.

 

[Ahab8]

Very nice Abe, that's one for the highlight reels!

Yessir I will remember this baby. Right up there with some of my best

 

[romeo-1]

Holy crap...you found one too!! That's awesome and is still on my bucket list!

 

[Ahab8]

Thanks for the history lesson on the brooch. Congrats on a spectacular find.

Best of luck to you sir!

Thank you CT. Great to see you getting out my frirnd

 

[Ahab8]

I had to google this also, I was clueless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luckenbooth_brooch

Now it's on my bucket list too. Awesome find.

Hope you check this one off your list one day my friend

 

[Ahab8]

Only you Abe. You must be doing something right. So enjoy the stories and finds. If I can't get out myself, I can enjoy the stories and finds you guys make. It is amazing that you have such an old site, and find such nice stuff. Go get um. Can't wait to see what you find next!

So nice to hear from you OJG. I hope you are doing well and I'm sorry to hear that you haven't been out hunting much. I will try to keep your spirits up with a couple more good finds before the cold takes me out.

 

[Ahab8]

Nice find bud, at least you have been hunting without the drama of near death experiences, nice digs.

Thanks buddy. Yes I'm getting too old to put myself in these positions all the time. Lol

 

[Ahab8]

I sure hope I post a gold coin real soon...so you can get yours.. LOL

Yeah hurry up and go get that thing man

 

[Ahab8]

I'm not on the forums as much as others over the last 15+ years, but I'd say yours is a very rare find.

The most striking/awesome notable thing about yours (to me), is that yours really shows the actual hand-working with different types of iron punches. You can imagine what the tools looked like. Anything of this era that has obvious personal hand made details has always been special to me. I'm not saying I'd turn down an early fancy cast pewter spoon, but I really appreciate hand work details on early items....and add to that fact, that it is early silver jewelry, really knocks it out of the park.


15+ years ago, when I found my Witches Heart, it took a long time to research what it was, because there were so few websites to cover these, or get a rough date even.

I posted it on the old Treasure Depot Site then, and one guy from Salem Mass said he has the same silversmithed design on a silver knee buckle found in Salem. He said they must have both been made by the same unknown Boston silversmith, but that is kind of a stretch

mine was found on rough hilly rocky land, nowhere near a cellar. It was one of many days when I asked myself: "why am I hunting here"? ...and then got the high tone! The iron hinge pin was rusted with the latch bar fully open from when it was lost, I guess. The pin crumbled apart, so that is a wood toothpick in these pics

Much appreciated my friend. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and give me your thoughts. The craftsmanship is truly striking for such an early piece. I really appreciate you showing yours. What a cool find with a great history. It's great to be able to add one of these to the finds list. I'd love to see or hear about more examples if you know of any

 

[Ahab8]

Congrats again buddy on that awesome recovery. I can't wait to hear what your Mom's reaction is. Please let us know when that moment happens ....

Thank you buddy. I will certainly share that.

 

[Ahab8]

Holy crap...you found one too!! That's awesome and is still on my bucket list!

Yup pretty crazy huh. I was shocked not only when I realized what I had....but when I realized The Patriot had just dug one

 

[deershed]

Beautiful piece of old silver!! So Great to see you able to scratch this off your bucket list!
Thanks for the history lesson in this post.