New Coastal Area Gives Up Some Goodies

[steelheadwill]

Hi Everyone,
An old friend of mine owns properties where the coastline is so steep and rocky
I never considered searching it before.
I came to realize that this would actually be an advantage to landing small craft
as opposed to the acres of mud that are exposed in most areas at low tide.
Some areas here are so full of nails large and small and tiny iron flakes that my detector wouldn't register a 4" brass screw visible on the surface
Cleared some footage with my trusty 250lb magnet and scored some goodies.

Maine State Militia Button. Exceptional condition for salt find of this age,
It came out of the rocks as shown. all that was needed was a freshwater soak.
Granted Statehood in 1820, these large flats were issued shortly thereafter.
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A rather toasty USMC button of the same time frame, these early buttons are scarce because there just weren't many Marines, fewer than 1300 Officers and enlisted up til the CW era
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modern snap type Navy button, BM 'USF' United States Fastener?
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Spanish War era cuff button, BM NS MEYER, I think the wire attached is to secure new buttons
to the card on which they came.... can anyone confirm?


Copper nail headstamped US, in font similar to the 1802 Pewter buttons, another first seen.
Anyone else recover one of these?
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That's it for Military.

A 14K whatsit, thinking it is an eyeline pencil or similar, some lipsticks I've found have the slot where a pin would be used to push the product up.
Any ideas on this items purpose are welcome
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Numbered pendant with what looks like a young Queen Victoria.


From the edges of yard came pieces of two 8 sided black glass bottles, note sharp lip on neck, similar to the onion I got earlier.
my reference date this style from around 1740.


Buckle parts & other bits, from yard.


Silver ring from yard, crudely made and unmarked, shows 'lamination error' inside as present on a trench art coin ring I recovered, though no other signs of being made from a coin.
Takes a long time for silver to get this deep black patina in local dirt, I think it's quite old.
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Pewter/lead Brooch, maybe a mourning piece? shows two griffins holding an urn.
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Here's a beauty, was setting on the surface where the yard is eroding down onto the beach,
unmarked Silver 32mm lionhead ring, napkin rings were introduced around 1600, and I think that's what this is. likely Victorian/modern. great detail on the face, mane and acanthus leaves.
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Would think this silver item was a broken bracelet, ends show no signs of breakage though


Unmarked Silver cufflink half, the script I looks very much the style of the 1802 pewter US Infantry buttons.
(As with the copper nail.... strange)
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What I believe is the worlds smallest silver coin, thought it to be an oil lamp thumbwheel, but it had the look of saltwater silver, turns out to be an 1896 Guatamalan 1/4 Real. 11mm and .6 G.
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Another world coin, I get more old foreigns than US.
Part and parcel of digging in a seaport/military area.
A 1695 Poltura of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, 'The Hogmouth'.
King of Austria, Hungary, and other countries under Papal Rule.
(above 'poltura' is an image of Madonna and Christ child)
This was a tough one to ID, before cleaning the denomination appeared as 'Fultura' and I was getting nowhere with that. Krause lists no 1695 issue, I know that 6's can often appear to be 5's and vice versa, but in this case the 6 shown on other examples could not morph into the 5 displaying on this one, the styles are completely different.
It was recovered at the hillside washout, and likely came down from the yard many years ago.
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Not shown are the dozens of modern coins and a load of copper and brass scrap recovered
in the 10 hours or so I spent on the site.
It's now been cherrypicked and I'm on the hunt for my next area to dig.
Old man Wiley wasn't very interested in what was found, what made him happy was the bag of cod and haddock fillets I delivered after a successful fishing trip.

Thanks for looking and HH everyone
,

 

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[steelheadwill]

well I don't know why my pix aren't showing.... I'll try again.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Herbie - that's definitely an unusual site to hunt, but sometimes taking that chance can pay off as it did for you. Definitely some age to it, and I'm sure you were intrigued enough by your finds to make a return visit soon. And that 1/4 reale is a really nice find. My partner Dan and I have both recovered colonial era 1/4 reales, and they are indeed extremely small coins. Hope you're able to return to this place soon and continue to harvest some nice relics and coins. Good luck ..... Bill

 

[CRUSADER]

Its not the smallest but it is pretty cool & the first of this type I have seen posted - well done.

 

[Trezurehunter]

that's a great mix of finds.

 

[VOL1266-X]

You spanned a lot of decades there Herbie. I have never seen a Great Seal device like that one. I have seen Great Seal rosettes but not that relic. Glad you got out my friend & HH, Q.

 

[steelheadwill]

Thanks everyone
Cru, are you speaking of ancient coins? I was able to locate a smaller silver coin, modern.

1976 PANAMA TWO AND HALF CENTESIMOS
​

DIAMETER: 10 MM
The only photos of the 1/4 Real I can see in my post are my example pix, having issues with uploads, though they are same size and format I have always used

Q,
I saw an auction listing for a set of WWI buttons attached to 'original' card, that's why I thought
the button attachment was as I described.
I hope all is well, it's great to hear from you !!
Bill, I have been making some decent recoveries at these difficult to access shorelines, It's either by boat, or property owner permission.
The finds don't have to be stunners to make me happy, I enjoy uncovering any old bits of times gone by.
I still want an Escudo

Thanks for looking, and HH All
​

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

I'm right with ya Herbie. Colonial gold has been at the top of my list for many years, and I'm determined to dig one before I hang up the ole detector.

 

[twoauers]

real nice finds, well done
Jon in Nashville

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Great old seacoast digs , like them all .
The dog face ring is very kool !! Love dogs as most know . Spanish escudos have been found here in Cape May but none found by moi . The Army Corp dredge was spitting them out until the dredgers starting putting mesh over the outlet pipes . Word on the street is some of the workers found handfuls of them . If I had to make a choice between an Escudo or a Mass tree , you know which one this digger would pick. Keep posting up more stuff here Herbie the Treeman , always a pleasure to see whats washing up into your beach sites ,
important ........... keep hydrated ................it's gonna b a hot one this week

dawg

 

[joeyfresh]

Forgive me if you have already explained Herbie but how exactly did you collect these? With a magnet? I am intrigued so please explain.

 

[catherine1]

Very impressive finds!! Thanks for sharing and good luck!!!

 

[Jeff H]

Very cool Herbie ! I've got a couple of old landing sites identified that I plan to hit this summer. I'll be happy to find just one tree shilling in my life ! Sounds like a good magnet will really help the cause.

 

[steelheadwill]

Thanks all!
Bill, I'll not hang them up til I get one either!! My local coin & metal dealer surprised me with a handful a while back, an 8, two fours and some twos. He told me a woman had come in with her late husbands collection and they were among the spoils, I didn't even have my camera phone with me. even though they kinda looked 'too good' to me, I was literally drooling, test on a single showed 23+K, and he paid spot on them (what a guy huh)
he opens his store whenever he wants and I haven't seen him since.
Times I have been hanging around the store I've seen make some spectacular buys,

Dawg, that napkin ring (or whatever it is, 31mm, unmarked silver, can't find a match online)
does have the protruding snout of a dog,(that particular image accentuates this) the mane looks lion like, and the lion image was so prevalent on Victorian items. anyway dog or lion, i love it
I gotta get on and make replies to others finds posts, it's the extreme busy season for my work, and time is so short..
I'll bet the dredge workers got all kinds of goodies, I scan over the ones here at low tide and made some finds, (a 1640s 400 reis came from these I believe, it was at the very edge of one)
Best wishe s to everyone on your hunts !!! Herbie

 

[steelheadwill]

Forgive me if you have already explained Herbie but how exactly did you collect these? With a magnet? I am intrigued so please explain.

Joey, recoveries were made with detector. magnet is just a helpful tool.
I drag a pair of 250 lb lift magnets along the surface and wherever I've disturbed the ground.
They are available at harbor frieght tools locally or online for $18 bucks each,(about 5"X3"X1.5") have an eye hook attached for your rope, I used a piece of copper pipe as a spacer between the two eyes, iron jumps out of the ground onto it. I use it whenever I hunt dense iron. which is almost all my hunting.
more important than the nails are the thousands of small iron flakes that it grabs, these little scattered pieces act as a cloaking device, and even visible copper wont register in this stuff.
Best wishes & HH! Herbie

 

[steelheadwill]

Very cool Herbie ! I've got a couple of old landing sites identified that I plan to hit this summer. I'll be happy to find just one tree shilling in my life ! Sounds like a good magnet will really help the cause.

Good Luck Jeff, these are my favorite areas! Magnet really helps, see above reply on where to get good ones cheap!
HH to you

 

[Bubba65]

Herbie that is a nice assortment of finds my friend . How big of an area were you able to clean off Herbie and are those the magnets you told me about in one of the emails?

Bubba65

 

[steelheadwill]

Herbie that is a nice assortment of finds my friend . How big of an area were you able to clean off Herbie and are those the magnets you told me about in one of the emails?

Bubba65

Yes the same magnets, I just clean up spots where I get overloads, cherrypicking

 

[StormSurge]

Love to read your posts and most of all see you finds. So you think that , what l thought was a lions head ring, is a napkin ring? The detail is amazing for a small piece found on the beach. I love it! Don't see rocky beaches in the south like that. Do you make your finds laying on top, moving some rocks or do you have to dig deep in that crap?

 

[NJLargeCent]

A great seaside technique, indeed. You deserve all of the great finds that come to you for your hard work and ingenuity!