Spanish Silver, Seated Silver, Barber Silver, and Military

[BuckleBoy]

Hello All,

We decided to get out and do some digging, so Shang and I hit the fields for some long days in the heat. The good news is that we got some great finds, including over 6500 acres of new permissions, bringing our total permissions in several different areas of the state to around 52,000 acres.

Here's a video of the hunt:



We hit the fields early, and Shang dug a musket sling hook, which is a great find. He also got some other decent bits, including buttons and a nice pocket watch winder. I was very pleased to flip out a tiny silver late in the day. It was an 1853 Seated Half Dime!



We were wore out by the 95 degree (feels like 100) heat, so we called it a day, to come and dig again the next day. Started at 5:30am and got out there for a 14 hour day in the hot sweaty fields. Scouted out a new site on some of our new land, so we jumped right in. Pottery everywhere, and some clay pipe stems too--which always means Spanish, or at least Seated Silver! Unfortunately the site was LOADED with aluminum can and trash, but we kept at it and got some goodies amid the bags an bags of can shred.

First score went to Shang with a nice Enfield trigger guard!


Then I dug what I believe is a side plate from a musket (can someone confirm this?)



Also dug some flat buttons, a couple of gawgag wheat pennies and a toasted Indian, and some other bits. Then I dug a piece of "can" that rang higher and was happy to see that it was actually a piece of silver (probably a plow-destroyed spoon).

Then all of a sudden, I got a signal which (like so many others) I refused to get excited about, even though it was a perfect half real signal. Only this time--it actually was!!



Also picked up a nice musket trigger guard, which I really consider a great find. Haven't dug many of these in so intact...



The endless beans--which were fortunately dry for us for most of the day until...we could no longer dodge the clouds.



Well, when I say that the skies opened up and it DUMPED, that would be the understatement of the year. Fortunately it was brief, so we did what any sensible diggers would do--we got back out there in the mud and over 100 degree "feels-like" heat, and tried to find some more! Skies were still ominous in the distance, but we kept at it and I got a perfect signal and flipped out a flash of silver which I thought I hallucinated in the heat and humidity. Nope--it was a SILVER QUARTER!!



Turned out to be a well-worn 1907 Barber Quarter. Probably a farmer drop, but I'm VERY happy to have it. This is my 5th Barber Quarter since finding my first one in 25 years two years ago. The floodgate is open! Let the Barbers fly into my pouch!



Anyhow, pretty soon it started raining like a monsoon so we sat in the car and looked through Shang's interesting finds, then we headed home.

Here are some of the other finds:



On the left, two mystery silver pieces. One is stamped. On the right, what may be the crown from a pocket watch.



Also dug the top of a lead chess king (middle left):



Similar to these:



And here is a group shot of the rest of the finds:



The 1782 Half Real. I'm really thrilled to add another COLONIAL silver to the total!



Here's the 1907 Barber Quarter. Probably lost well after that date, judging from how smooth it is.



And the pretty little 1853 Seated Half Dime:



Keep Diggin' and Happy Hunting,


-Buck

 

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[deershed]

Thanks so much, my friend! Is that a Connecticut Copper in your profile pic? Great looking coin there!

Yes it is and that's exactly how she came out of the ground. Just a little gentle dry rubbing. My best big copper by far.
At that same site the boy and I each found a Spanish silver along with a 1835 Capped Bust half dime and a pile of old coppers and flat buttons.
One of the owners kids couldn't figure out why we spent so much time there and suggested to Mom we probably shouldn't be there?

 

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[BuckleBoy]

Yes it is and that's exactly how she came out of the ground. Just a little gentle dry rubbing. My best big copper by far.
At that same site the boy and I each found a Spanish silver along with a 1835 Capped Bust half dime and a pile of old coppers and flat buttons.
One of the owners kids couldn't figure out why we spent so much time there and suggested to Mom we probably shouldn't be there?

That's a great coin, and you were probably wise to dry clean it instead of water. Hope you didn't lose the site because of suspicion...

-Buck

 

[toasted]

It never ceases to amaze me the number of half dimes you find down there.

 

[deershed]

That's a great coin, and you were probably wise to dry clean it instead of water. Hope you didn't lose the site because of suspicion...

-Buck

Yeah, my luck with old coppers and cleaning isn't very good. Lol At this same site I found a 1794 Liberty Cap Half Cent. We got a pic after I pulled it out of the hole and then lost what little detail we had after it dried out.
We pretty much lost that permission for that very reason. We practically lived there, we hit it so often.
The good part the owner (Mom) likes us and could care less if we detect. She's just trying to keep the peace with the family.
We stopped there to see her one day a couple months ago. The first thing she said with a laugh and a smile was if we wanted to metal detect.
We hit it that day again for a few hours and that's when I got the Capped Bust Half. Waiting for a good long day and plan on going back again. Lol

 

[Scrappy]

Hiya Steve! Yeah, mostly we get "O" coins down here. Philly mint is second, and I can think of only one "D" dime, and a couple of "S" war nickels and a lone "CC" seated that were dug in the past 5-6 years.

We do have many more Seated than Barber, due to the age of the sites we dig. Two years ago we had almost a 30 Spanish silver year, so Reales outnumbered all the other silvers combined. But that was a rare year. Probably won't happen again--although I can't say "never." Perhaps the next site we walk into we'll be so lucky!

Cheers,

Buck

Those are some interesting stats, but they make sense considering what it took to cross the country from Carson City or Denver back then. An interesting thing is I've only dug one CC and two O's in all my seated finds. The rest were Philly.

Anyway ,looking forward and knowing the Cane Bandit's record, I'm sure you'll be on lucky soil soon. Cheers and good luck

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Amazing how you guys always seem to dig multiple silver. If you could just get out a little more frequently you would soon have a massive collection. Great post!

 

[BuckleBoy]

It never ceases to amaze me the number of half dimes you find down there.

Those tiny buggers sure got lost a lot. But I have a theory that half dimes were like the coppers of the plantation south. I think that coppers were in short supply in South Louisiana and therefore everyone had half dimes and half reales in their pockets all the time. We have dug just over 200 pre-1900 silvers here in 5 years, and one would think we should have dug 600 large cents in that same amount of time--but we have only dug maybe 5 LC's, plus a 1722 French 6 Deniers, an 1813 Half Stiver KG III, and a token dated 1819 which may have passed as a copper. Also one hard times token that was LC sized. So I think there were very few copper coins in circulation down here. Vast majority of the Indian Heads we find are 1880s, 90s, and 1900s, with the exception of one toasted Flying Eagle which we dug in a Yankee camp by the river.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Yeah, my luck with old coppers and cleaning isn't very good. Lol At this same site I found a 1794 Liberty Cap Half Cent. We got a pic after I pulled it out of the hole and then lost what little detail we had after it dried out.
We pretty much lost that permission for that very reason. We practically lived there, we hit it so often.
The good part the owner (Mom) likes us and could care less if we detect. She's just trying to keep the peace with the family.
We stopped there to see her one day a couple months ago. The first thing she said with a laugh and a smile was if we wanted to metal detect.
We hit it that day again for a few hours and that's when I got the Capped Bust Half. Waiting for a good long day and plan on going back again. Lol

Yeah, it's tough with a really good site. We always wanna hit it often and stay there forever, as long as we're digging great stuff. But folks do notice and begin to wonder why. I'm glad we have so many permissions for that very reason. Always a different place to go, and we try to spread it out.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Amazing how you guys always seem to dig multiple silver. If you could just get out a little more frequently you would soon have a massive collection. Great post!

Already seems to be piling up. We can usually count on a farmer drop with lots and lots of work--and often those are Barbers it seems. Crazy that I have yet to dig a Mercury Dime or Roosevelt down here. Shane has dug one Mercury only. But my hunch is that while the economy collapsed during Reconstruction, people obviously still had money--now perhaps that was Anglo-planters and carpetbaggers coming south, or maybe not, who knows. But for sure, once the Depression hit, the only coins we find from 1930s on are wheat cents and nickels in the fields. Oh--and aluminum tax tokens. We have quite a collection of those. I've stopped posting them, since we find so many.

Best Wishes,

Buck

 

[mangum]

That's a great day for sure Buck! Congrats on the old silver & other nice relics.

 

[BuckleBoy]

That's a great day for sure Buck! Congrats on the old silver & other nice relics.

Thanks so much, magnum!

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[Ahab8]

Great job Buck knocking down a few silvers and relics. I love the double holed real. Very cool indeed.

 

[46Wheat]

What an epic day . Congrats

 

[BuckleBoy]

Great job Buck knocking down a few silvers and relics. I love the double holed real. Very cool indeed.

Hiya Ahab! I have one other double holed coin in my collection--a half dime. Wonder if these were made into buttons...

Cheers,

Buck