Silvery Conestoga Bell, IHPs, & Relics

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Here is the best find from my Saturday afternoon hunt at the old local site I’ve been hitting lately. Tombac with some silver wash remaining.




This little guy was pretty deep and sounded and looked like a Largie when it popped.


The circle of indents don’t pierce through. It is fairly thick metal. Thinking it is probably the front cover of a small pocket watch, cool design.

A couple decent IHPs.


Here is the handful of other finds.

The ring is Gold filled... and another civil war era Eagle button.


I liked the flattened angle on this spoon, sort of makes more sense than fully rounded.



Oh, and my buddies “find of the day”...


Good luck out there!

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Congrats on the nice finds!

 

[Steve in PA]

Nice hunt Thad. I have found a number of pieces of those bells. I can't image that they were made of Tombac though, way too brittle. Pretty sure they are made of bell metal, which based on the broken ones I've found is also fairly brittle.
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_metal[/FONT]

 

[Digger RJ]

Very Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Nice hunt Thad. I have found a number of pieces of those bells. I can't image that they were made of Tombac though, way too brittle. Pretty sure they are made of bell metal, which based on the broken ones I've found is also fairly brittle.
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Tahoma,Calibri,Geneva,sans-serif]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_metal[/FONT]

Thx Steve. That’s the first I’ve heard the term Bell Metal, but I bet you are correct. 75% copper and 25% tin. Has the same visible properties as tombac. I’ve found 3 or 4 other smaller intact Conestoga bells, but they were definitely green patina brass when cleaned up.

 

[JeffInMass]

Nice finds and pics- especially the last one- LOL!

 

[lenmac65]

Congrats on a nice hunt. Love that bell.

 

[Silvermonkey]

That looks like a really fun hunt! Your bell is awesome!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I've found a quite few Conestoga Bells, interesting that yours had a silver wash.
The round engraved piece is an interesting find, I'm not sure it's a pocket watch cover though, maybe consider posting it in the What is it Forum.

I bet the property owner was happy to get his teeth back... he was probably getting tired of gumming his food!

Dave

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

I've found a quite few Conestoga Bells, interesting that yours had silver wash.
The round engraved piece is an interesting find, I'm not sure it's a pocket watch cover though, maybe consider posting it in the What is it Forum.

I bet the property owner was happy to get his teeth back... he was probably getting tired of gumming his food!

Dave

Thx! Old intact bells are always a fun find and they sound great on the detector. This one is my best looking bell for sure. The engraved piece could also have been a hinged picture holding medallion. It is just much thicker/heavier than a typical jewelry piece. It was deep and near where the early 1800’s stuff seems to be concentrated.

 

[Johncoho]

Nice finds, my friend.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Thx! Old intact bells are always a fun find and they sound great on the detector. This one is my best looking bell for sure. The engraved piece could also have been a hinged picture holding medallion. It is just much thicker/heavier than a typical jewelry piece. It was deep and near where the early 1800’s stuff seems to be concentrated.

A "hinged picture holding medallion", I've never heard of that before I'll have to Google that.
So you mean like the back portion of a miniature portrait?

Thanks very much for the follow up to my post as well buddy.
Dave