My best day digging in years!! 26 buttons, 7 coppers, 2 Spanish silvers, and more!!

[Steve in PA]

Saturday I returned to my site where I dug the 1803 Draped Bust dime two weeks ago. I had my buddy Tom along with me again. From previous visits I knew that the scattered finds had to be coming from a house site in the vicinity. We decided to start out in an ajacent field relatively close to where I found the dime, but a fair distance from where a lot of the other finds were located. We weren't in this new field for a minute before Tom dug a knee buckle and I dug a copper almost simultaneously. From then on it was GAME ON!!! We were pulling coppers, buttons and other relics almost non stop for the next two hours. After that it slowed down a bit for the next few hours but the finds were still coming. I ended up with 26 buttons, 7 coppers including a 1808 half cent, 2 half reals (1773 and 1781), 2 watch winders, a silver dagger sheath tip, and a cool diamond shaped brass piece with a silver skin that has a guy's name inscribed in it. Tom ended up with 10 buttons, 6 coppers including a half cent, a half real (1790), a knee buckle, and the button of the day - a beautiful gold plated War of 1812 era artillery button.

I also achieved a personal mile stone on this hunt with my 50th Spanish silver.

The first picture is a group shot of all our finds with mine on the bottom half of the pic. All the other pics are of my finds except the artillery button.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Don in SJ]

Congrats Steve and Tom on a super hunt! I would be busy for 8 hours cleaning all those finds! I hope you figure out the man's name on the silver piece, I cannot . Congrats on reaching your 50th Silver, how many from Pa out of that 50. That is quite an accomplishmet unless you are a Bill D in Va.

Don

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Treasure of Victoria Peak - Grab it through Amazon!

[Don in SJ]

Steve, I played with the photo of the engraved silver piece and the name John Morthe is a valid name. English. The name might have been changed to Mort or Morth in later times if they came to America. I did find a John Morthe who grew up in Erie NY but much later, also plenty of Mort family in Western Pa in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Just giving some possible wild leads.........

Don

 

[Steve in PA]

Steve, I played with the photo of the engraved silver piece and the name John Morthe is a valid name. English. The name might have been changed to Mort or Morth in later times if they came to America. I did find a John Morthe who grew up in Erie NY but much later, also plenty of Mort family in Western Pa in the late 1700s to early 1800s. Just giving some possible wild leads.........

Don

Don,

Thanks for your help on the name. I will send you some information I have on the site by e-mail that might tie into that name. Out of the 50 Spanish Silvers, 48 are from PA and 2 from Virginia.

 

[JanThorCro]

Awesome Day.

 

[metalev4]

Wow! Great Hunt guys. Congrats on the 50th Spanish silver Steve! Nice watch winder as well. I hope it keeps producing.
-Evan

 

[Kirk PA]

Oh man! This is just sick. That is just insane. Alright, Steve! Now that is how you do it in PA. I bet there are ten more coins there.

My passion is high. My fever is thriving.

Kirk

 

[steelheadwill]

What a fantastic group of finds!!
You guys cleaned house
Congrats on all the Goodies !!! and Happy 50th,

 

[NJLargeCent]

It appears you found the former site of an unknown mint that was next door to a button factory. I am floored by your haul. Congrats!

 

[Mach1Pilot]

Wow - what a way to spend a clear blue sky day! You two really cleaned up! The engraved piece is really interesting - hopefully you can find out more details on that piece.

Congrats to the both of you on a superb hunt!

 

[Rick (Nova Scotia)]

Holy Sheelite.

I can imagine best day in years. I can also imagine the excitement after digging a few of those goodies back to back.

Wickedly awesome !

 

[ticm]

Just had to come back to look at what a good hunt is like.

 

[Valley Ranger]

Fantastic - way to go!

 

[oldsalty19]

WTG Steve.....nice accomplishments

 

[metaldetective]

Seriously awesome. I've been hunting nearly 20 years & I've got less than 10 Spanish Silvers. That's a great spot you're on...hit it from every direction.......TWICE!

 

[IAsoldier]

Wow thats a very good day

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Sorry I missed you post until now Steve, but I haven't been on the forums much lately due to a lot of non-detecting issues that I'm dealing with. Anyway, I don't know where to begin. To say that was an awesome day for you would be a major understatment. That nice assortment of goodies is exactly what us colonial hunters are seeking every time out. And many congrats to you on breaking the 50 colonial silver milestone. I know that's been a long time coming, but now with that goal behind you your sights can now be set on hitting that century mark. I have no doubt you'll get there.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

It was a special day for sure. Steve and myself have made some great finds in the past individually, but this hunt will go probably go down as our "best & most fun" together. We were working close enough to each other as not to disturb the other, but near enough to share in the fun of each recovery as they were made. Here are some of my finds after a quick cleaning. The artillery button has a back-mark of EXTRA RICH ORANGE, which I believe might be a late 1790's-1800 model but I'm not sure,View attachment 677019 as it is not shown in my reference book. Any ideas?

Many congrats to you too Tom on a great day of colonial hunting. It'll be your turn to dig spanish silver next time. Looking forward to more finds from this awesome site.

 

[Steve in PA]

Sorry I missed you post until now Steve, but I haven't been on the forums much lately due to a lot of non-detecting issues that I'm dealing with. Anyway, I don't know where to begin. To say that was an awesome day for you would be a major understatment. That nice assortment of goodies is exactly what us colonial hunters are seeking every time out. And many congrats to you on breaking the 50 colonial silver milestone. I know that's been a long time coming, but now with that goal behind you your sights can now be set on hitting that century mark. I have no doubt you'll get there.

Bill, I'm glad you found the post before it got buried. This hunt reminded me of one of your hunts, with all the buttons. I have always noticed the large number of buttons you turn up on your hunts. I attribute this to the presence of slaves on your sites. Where a Pennsylvania farmer in 1810 would have had himself, his wife, kids and maybe a couple indentured servants, a Virginia farmer may have also had a dozen slaves. More people = more buttons lost. I was a little disappointed in the buttons I found, of the 26 I dug, two were tombacs, two had backmarks, and the rest were just plain flat buttons with no backmarks and no designs on the face. As far as the Spanish Silvers, I dug my first in 1990 and I hunted some killer sites in the 1990s that really added to my totals. I have dug 5 this year so far, so I guess another 50 might be possible in another 15 years or so, if my health holds up....

 

[ticm]

...

 

[hogge]

Tremendous Finds. It's been a long summer! Hope to feel like this soon! Hogge