Welcome Back T-Net…Scored my Oldest Silver Yet!!

[romeo-1]

This past Saturday morning I decided to hunt a site I hadn’t hunted in a couple years. I have previously hunted this site five or six times along with several other hunters. It has been a productive site and is in fact where I found a 1784 1 reale during my second year of detecting. My rationale for returning to this hunted site was I’m pretty sure that my detecting skills have improved dramatically since the last time I was there. I used to avoid the heaviest concentrations of iron but have since changed my style to focus on the iron as well as all around the iron patch. Needless to say, I am so glad I went back!

I went straight to the iron patch and the first target was the shoe buckle fork tine. Good sign if this had been missed so many times before. Next couple targets were a couple plain flat buttons including a heavy silver plated lead backed button. Next two targets were the lead bale seal and the navy button. I was able to research the button and it is a 1787 Royal Navy officer’s cuff button (shank is intact).

The last target of the hunt was found well off the main site. It is most definitely the oldest coin I have found…it’s a 1676 Louis XIV 4 Sol! Very early French silver. I know it looks like a 1696 but this style of 4 Sol was only minted from 1674-1677 (Someone please correct me if I am wrong or confirm that I am correct). Funny thing is I almost didn’t dig it. When I was pinpointing it only sounded in one direction…must have been on edge. It wasn’t very deep so I decided to dig in and pull out some iron…and when I flipped the plug it was sitting on the blade of my shovel! I knew it was old silver right away but didn’t know how old until I got home. Very pleased.

Ps…this was going to be the back-up site for when IronHorse was here…now I’m glad we didn’t need a back-up.

 

[TheDane]

Very nice coin. Yes, it is a 4 Sol. The A in the middle on the back says that it was minted in Paris.
Here a bit about Louis the 14th, the famous "Sun King": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France

 

[CMDiamonddawg]

Wow !!!! that is a old one Congrats Romeo ...after all the cold turkey and no TNet , it is great to see great coin & relicfinds like these ...life is good again ,Yes !! CMD

 

[romeo-1]

Very nice coin. Yes, it is a 4 Sol. The A in the middle on the back says that it was minted in Paris.
Here a bit about Louis the 14th, the famous "Sun King": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France

Thanks for the link, one of many I had found while researching the coin. Next one will be gold!

 

[KRAZYHORSES]

awesome R1!! that is my meat and potatoes in the iron i think there is more good targets in the iron then in the clean outskirts that i call [radio-shack land] because any detector can find the targets in a clean area enjoy the hobby scott

 

[Steve in PA]

Very nice digs. I really like the coin and the navy button. It always pays to go back to an old site. The ground changes and things move around, especially in areas where the ground freezes deep. A new machine can make a difference too. I frequently return to my better old sites after a few years and it almost always pays off.

 

[Hill Billy]

Don't you just love it when you return to a hunted site and the good stuff keeps coming.
Congrats on such a sweet coin.

 

[CRUSADER]

BIG CONGRATS

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Real nice coin Romeo.

Congrats!

 

[Iron Patch]

Very nice coin. Yes, it is a 4 Sol. The A in the middle on the back says that it was minted in Paris.
Here a bit about Louis the 14th, the famous "Sun King": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_XIV_of_France

Thanks for the link, one of many I had found while researching the coin. Next one will be gold!

French gold would be great but I'll still take the 1670 15 Sols over it!

 

[mainer]

Nice digs Rome. Love that old silver.

 

[Bavaria Mike]

A big congrats and I think you are getting into the hard to beat range, LOL! HH, Mike

 

[romeo-1]

A big congrats and I think you are getting into the hard to beat range, LOL! HH, Mike

I think you may be right...but I'm gonna try!

 

[TheDane]

By the way, what you call a bale seal, I think is a cloth seal, the scratched numbers on the back are typical.
They are thought to indicate the amount (length) of the cloth in the cloth roll.
Could be as old as the coin, or mayby older.

 

[hogge]

Awesome Silver! Congrats! Hogge

 

[sniffer]

awesome find on that silver. it just goes to show, as you get better with your machine, go back and check all your sites, you never now what you left behind

 

[romeo-1]

By the way, what you call a bale seal, I think is a cloth seal, the scratched numbers on the back are typical.
They are thought to indicate the amount (length) of the cloth in the cloth roll.
Could be as old as the coin, or mayby older.

Yeah, I kinda knew that but use the terms interchangeably.

 

[Sniffy]

Very impressive silver there Sir Romeo. Man what I'd do to dig any coin from the 17th Century.

 

[romeo-1]

Very impressive silver there Sir Romeo. Man what I'd do to dig any coin from the 17th Century.

Thanks Sniffy! I've been really lucky, this is my fourth 17th century coin. I dug three 1690s 4 Sols last fall. Time to break into the 16th century!

 

[VERMONTPACKRAT]

Holy old silver I cant seem to find the old silver. My face would be hurting from grin pains if I found that baby right there !


VPR

 

[Syrena Hunter]

Very nice! Looks like you learned a few tricks in the past years