Occoquan ,VA day 3 got the lead I.D stamps and a fork with U.S stamped on handle

Ifoundit69 · Dec 28, 2008

The wife cut me loose again I must of done something right for christmas to be able to go detectin 3 days in a row .Day one produced a nice button I posted earlier and a knife so day three produced the spoon and fork ,now I can eat lunch"ha ha " ! The day started off kind of funny ,my bud stacy recently purchased a garrett 2500 nice detector and he is new to the hobby ,so he walks up to me after about 30 minutes of detecting with this aggrivated look on his face claiming there is something terrible wrong with his detector ,so I reset it to factory settings made some adjustment and it was just beeping away so I walked away from him for a minute to try it out and it settled down ,went back towards him and was about 5 feet away and it did it again I looked him over and realized he had steel toe boots on so I had to laugh not trying to be mean or anything but it was funny ,so once he put his sneakers on he was good to go . After about 1 hour I dug up a copper fork with U.S stamped on the handle and a silver spoon and then a brass strap adjuster and then two lead I.D stamps with W.S on both of them and one had RY. on the back I am guessing RHODE ISLAND . And a nice little silver bar about 2 inches long and a brass clamp I am guessing for a small strap .So all in all it was a good day !!!!!

PBK · Dec 28, 2008

Re: Occoquan ,VA day 3 got the lead I.D stamps and a fork with U.S stamped on ha

The lead items look like boxcar seals. "RY" = Railway. Some railroad-line possibilities for "WS" include Ware Shoals, West Shore, Wisconsin & Southern, and Winamac Southern.

phantomfinder · Dec 28, 2008

I love too find old silverware

WTG on your hunt...... :thumbsup:

crazyjarhead · Dec 28, 2008

That silver ware must be military or old or both. Nice finds :thumbsup:

Marc in VA · Dec 28, 2008

Nice finds! The lead pieces are box car seals. These type of seals were used from 1857 thru the 1920's. WS stands for Washington Southern and that dates them to the early 1900's. The main line that ran thru Occoquan was the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad. For a period of about 10 years in the early 1900's the name was changed to Washington Southern RY and then it was changed back to the R,F,&P RR and remained under that name well into the 1990's. Now it is CXS. Your pieces are collectable to railroad collectors and I would assume that ones with Occoquan on them are scarce. Hope this info helps!

Marc