I DO think I HAMMERED this site today

Bushido Dude · Oct 24, 2010

Oh treasurenet....how I love witty titles. Although I hate to spoil it for you....i have found no hammered coins to date....but what I do have for you is an extremely rad story and coinciding pictures......so lets begin this adventure. I was asked to help out a friend of a friend who lost a knife while attending a local festival. I won't go into great details about the area or land besides the fact that its extremely private and protected. Many events are held there from renaissance festivals to spiritual ceremonies. I hadn't planned on doing any digging besides those low iron tones hoping to pull out the lost knife.....but my curiousity got the best out of me when i noticed an abundance of what i like to call heart pumper tones where it sounds so good and solid your mouth begins to water and your palms begin to sweat. To save folks from having to read if they dont want the story i'll post the pictures and continue with the story afterwards. So here are yesterdays finds!! $1.34 clad, 1 gold toned costume earring (broken), 1 silver plated costume earring, 1 long fine sterling necklace chain (broken), 1 crushed sterling cat ring, random costume jewelery bits, a pentagram token, a pewter good luck rune, a tiny 14k wedding band (date 5-2-35 inscribed on inside), 5 15th century replica coins (one large silver, three small pewter, one small bronze) and a good 2 hours of fun! Read the story after the pictures if you want the backstory on the replica coins....they actually have a great history behind them.........................................................to be continued

cntrydncr1 · Oct 24, 2010

that ring is really nice! congrats

Bushido Dude · Oct 24, 2010

Oops, i fell asleep, was a long day and night yesterday....anyways I kept pulling those strange coins out of the ground, obviously not really old and replicas but I didnt think anything of it. The story began to take a strange turn when my friend looked at them and said "wow, those look like Barto coins". Long story short she goes into telling me of this guy who casts/hammers bother replica coins and fantasy coins and how that's what he does for a living. As we are getting ready to leave, having not found the knife

, a car pulls up and low and behold it is the master silversmith himself going for a walk on the land. I asked him about the coins and he was blown away...he could tell by the thickness and design that it was his first generation of coins which were made as a real tender for a festival. The people would come in with 10 or 20 bucks and buy the coins. Then they would spend them as a more period correct currency, meaning the silversmith would get back his made currency. Good business for him. But this was his first line from over 25 years ago....and they only made so many (less than 500 of the silver coins if he remembers right) and most of which he got back and had remelted into future coins.....anyways long story short it was a great day of detecting and so cool that I got to meet the guy who made these coins and for him to give me the backstory behind it all was amazing. Here is a link to his website he gave me if anyone would like to check out his newer stuff...its amazing how far he has come with his technique for not only coins but all of the silver and goldsmithing that he does. Good luck everyone and happy hunting!