Three centuries of silver including awesome 1600s monogrammed spoon handle

[Bill D. (VA)]

I decided to take the warm afternoon today toreturn to one of my old sites from last season. I’ve also hit it a couple times recently withmy buds Dan and Joey. It’s a very smallspot with a fairly heavy iron patch plus thick clover, and I’ve been using mylittle 4” coil in an attempt to pick out what I hoped would be a few remainingtargets. It really takes a lot ofpatience as even when swinging the small coil very slowly, many of the signalsare questionable at best. But most timeswhen you do a little 2-inch wiggle over them, they lock in nicely. Today for some reason the signals werepopping up quite regularly, and many of them were keepers although quite a bitof melted lead blobs kept turning up. Myfirst nice artifact was a real surprise. I saw a thin silver disk in the dirt clod and was certain I had acolonial silver coin. But to my surpriseit turned out to be much more exciting — a monogrammed handle from a silvertrifid spoon from the late 1600s!! I’vedug quite a few of these terminal end handles, plus one complete spoon, but allof my recoveries were fashioned from latten (a copper-zinc alloy resemblingbrass). Some pewter examples are knownto exist, but I was blown away with this awesome silver specimen. It also has an intricate monogram with theletters R-C-A. As with bottle seals ofthe period, I feel certain the “C” is the surname initial that’s centered overthe husband’s (“R”) and wife’s (“A”) initials. I also dug a very nice silver cuff button engraved with the initial “I”,and then completed the trifecta with a very worn capped bust dime (181?). I also was able to put 14 buttons in my pouchalong with a few musketballs of various caliber. So although my expectations weren’t veryhigh, the day turned out to be quite fun and interesting. And my bald eagle friend was keeping an eyeon me from his high perch as I made my way off the property. That was a great way to end the day.

UPDATE: Upon closer inspection I can see where my capped bust dime is dated 1811 which is one of the low mintage years (only 65,180). Also, since I found a random war nickel at the same site I can now say I dug silver from 4 centuries yesterday .... ha!

 

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[Ahab8]

I am guessing you'd be hard pressed to find 4 people on Tnet who have dug a silver spoon piece of any sort from this time period. That silver trefid handle is incredible. To me it's a no brainer BANNER find....it will never make it up there but it's miles more rare that most things that go up. Huge congrats buddy. That link is incredible as well

 

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[dsdigger]

Congrats, looks like a good day of hunting with some really nice finds!

 

[Carolina Tom]

Congrats Bill. You always get the good stuff.

That engraved spoon handle is really cool!

Best of luck to you sir.

 

[JerseyDigger19]

Wow! I'd almost press the banner button for the rare 1811 dime alone. But the cuff button and 1600's spoon piece are absolutely astounding! Incredible digs... Jackpot!

 

[against the wind]

I don't know what my shorts would look like if I was to dig that dime. lol
Congrats on a super hunt.

 

[hogge]

Love the spoon handle!

 

[Valley Ranger]

Great finds Bill. I'm looking forward to your new book.

 

[gordonquixote]

You really have some excellent sites! Great finds!

 

[Scrappy]

Thanks Steve. I'm really excited about the trifid spoon piece as it's probably my oldest non-coin silver find in 20+ years of hunting colonial sites.

Haha. I actually just finished voting banner because of the spoon, and then I go back to read your response. Excellent!

 

[ajaj]

Very nice! Oh, and I love the eagle.

aj

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congratualtions on the nice silver and relic hunt!

 

[Steve in PA]

Love the cufflink and the spoon handle Bill. The Capped Bust dime is a great find too!

 

[montcalm]

Those relic are looking awesome all in once !Cong.

 

[Patriot Relics]

Silver trifecta...in the best possible way Bill- all incredible digs, but the etched spoon would have me doing back flips. Still looking to dig my first bust silver, but certainly proof that they are still out there.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

I am guessing you'd be hard pressed to find 4 people on Tnet who have dug a silver spoon piece of any sort from this time period. That silver trefid handle is incredible. To me it's a no brainer BANNER find....it will never make it up there but it's miles more rare that most things that go up. Huge congrats buddy. That link is incredible as well

Thanks Abe - I appreciate it man. That silver spoon end may not impress many diggers, but it's an extremely difficult artifact to find. I don't recall seeing anything like this posted before, especially with the personalization, and I'm still quite ecstatic over it.

 

[Relicific]

A nice variety of finds.
The spoon handle is very interesting.

 

[ReidMan]

Some killer early colonial stuff.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Silver trifecta...in the best possible way Bill- all incredible digs, but the etched spoon would have me doing back flips. Still looking to dig my first bust silver, but certainly proof that they are still out there.

Thanks Jon. I agree that bust silvers are next to impossible to dig as this was only my 3rd one in over 20 years. I've actually found 65 colonial silver coins for every bust I've dug which is a totally ridiculous ratio. Hope one finds itself under your coil soon.

 

[treblehunter]

WOW, that is the stuff I'm looking for, congrats, I so want to find that Dime.

 

[Tommy G]

Some outstanding finds there, Bill. The monogrammed spoon and cuff link are really special. Congrats!