🥇 BANNER Rare Charleston Slave Tag Fisher #1

Lost Signal

Hero Member
Mar 5, 2019
642
2,280
Lowcountry SC
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1
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Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Went out with mbcuce today and found a pretty special relic. Things started out slow. We were finding a few plain flat buttons and then he found a War of 1812 script I button, which is on my bucket list. I was hoping there would be another one.... There wasn't, but I did find a #1 Fisher slave tag from 1814. The extremely wet environment has a strange effect on brass and copper. Brass buttons come out looking like gold and it takes a while to get used to. On the first few, you think you're digging gold coins.

Whatever is keeping the buttons from turning green seems to have preserved the tag incredibly well.
slave tage obverse sized.jpg slavetag reverse sized.jpg
nriver group.jpg
 

Upvote 93

cw0909

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Dec 24, 2006
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congrats on your banner find, a #1 of a slave badge just wow
some info on Lafar badges in 1814-15


The tag recovered from the main house excavations
is typical of those issued during odd-numbered
years, is diamond shaped and measuring 70 mm square.
Stamped is Charleston across the top, No. (followed
by the punched numerals 187), Mechanic, and 1815.
On the reverse is stamped Lafar.While we no longer
can match this tag to its owner, we do know that in
the fiscal year 1814-1815 there were 1,898 tags produced
by John Joseph Lafar (1781-1849), who worked as a silversmith in Charleston.
https://chicora.org/pdfs/RS71 - St. Paul's Parish Plantation.pdf

maybe these guys that did the dig can help with more info & authentication

https://chicora.org/

https://chicora.org/researchseries.html
 

Last edited:

CASPER-2

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Jan 3, 2012
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NEW ENGLAND
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WHITE'S XLT, PI PRO, GARRETT 2500, 3- FISHER CZ21s, JW FISHER 8X
Primary Interest:
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FISHER IS EXTREMELY RARE tag
could bring its price above other tags by double or triple
Im sure many museums would love to have it
you might want to insure if you are not gonna sell it
transparent_casper.png
 

Elvis

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Jan 8, 2007
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Lafayette, Georgia
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WOW!!! Awesome find!!! Congrats!!
 

parsonwalker

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Feb 16, 2013
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Wow! Wow! Wow!
 

SCdigger

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Apr 6, 2003
488
682
South Carolina
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Teknetics T2 SE, Fisher Gold Bug Pro, Shadow X5, Fisher F75/F70, Garrett Infinium
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Amazing tag!
 

Lanny in AB

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Apr 2, 2003
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Alberta
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Incredible find!

Nicely done, all the best,

Lanny
 

Oct 5, 2014
31,886
35,424
Massachusetts
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Outstanding find, congrats! :notworthy:
 

A2coins

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Dec 20, 2015
33,807
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Ann Arbor
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Went out with mbcuce today and found a pretty special relic. Things started out slow. We were finding a few plain flat buttons and then he found a War of 1812 script I button, which is on my bucket list. I was hoping there would be another one.... There wasn't, but I did find a #1 Fisher slave tag from 1814. The extremely wet environment has a strange effect on brass and copper. Brass buttons come out looking like gold and it takes a while to get used to. On the first few, you think you're digging gold coins.

Whatever is keeping the buttons from turning green seems to have preserved the tag incredibly well.
View attachment 1927445 View attachment 1927446
View attachment 1927447
What an awesome find you desrve it. Thats a treasure just amazing
 

LawrencetheMDer

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Feb 22, 2014
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Troy Shadow x2 w 7" coil, Pointers; Garrett Carrot, Pro Find 35,
Primary Interest:
Beach & Shallow Water Hunting
Yes "Fisher" is the occupation and what a GREAT find. I was into researching them a few years ago (I collect pre Civil war American Slave memorabilia) and they were prominent in the Charleston area from about 1810 to pre civil war. Lots of fakes exist but yours appears real. Value is in the neighborhood of $3,000 - $6,000!!!
 

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