35 Colonial Coppers Today!

[doninbrewster]

We had a club outing today and it was colonial heaven. At least 35 colonial coppers came up and one William III c.1695-1697 silver piece. A lot of our members came up with multiple finds and I ended up with 7 coppers including a large planchet NJ, CT, a nice little 1749 Farthing and another 1724 Farthing. There were also 2 William & Mary coppers found. Interesting thing was is there was not one large cent found. I think my 1787 CT was the newest of the bunch. Our club exists for 2 reasons, one of them being the club hunts. It was on a club hunt last weekend where I found a 29 gram 14K bracelet. I've included a number of pictures from the hunt shown in the hands of those that found them. I didn't get a chance to photograph all of the finds, but here's a nice bunch. The first photo is of the 7 pieces I found. I should also mention that a number of nice flat buttons were found and a major find was eyeballed in the field, a stone axe!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[Scrappy]

Ummm...ah....but....nevermind...

Errr...I just cannot wrap my mind around your post...

Wow.

 

[Gridwalker306]

Yeah, that's a ridiculous amount of good finds. Like Scrappy, I'm in awe of this post!

 

[DirtStalker]

What Send membership application .Great finds.

 

[ironhorse]

That's a club!
Don't be surprised if membership skyrockets after this post!

Impressive coins and the amount too, any good relics to report from the site(s)? Looks like a really good time.

 

[Evolution]

Now there's a post title! Sounds like an incredible site your club was able to hunt Don. Your seven coppers all seem to have some pretty good detail remaining. Congrats to all of you.

 

[MackDog]

Nice here if we get a club hunt and find 5 silvers it's amazing

 

[Argentium]

That is an incredible area you're in - obviously (no large cents -hmmm ?)

 

[PattersonBob]

i am really sad i couldn't make this hunt. Well done to my fellow club members! i am really looking forward to next weeks hunt.....see you all there.

 

[doninbrewster]

That is an incredible area you're in - obviously (no large cents -hmmm ?)

That's what surprised me....no large cents! When you find more that 35 colonials in one fairly concentrated area you would think that whoever was there, stayed there and lost coins after this period. I have 2 thoughts. A small jug of coppers got buried, forgot about, and at some later date got hit by a plow and spread around a bit. Second thought is the original farmhouse could have been located here and perhaps they sold cows, vegetables, fruit or whatever and money got lost there before they moved the house. No evidence of any foundation.

 

[I-DIG-IT]

Nice digs.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

An outstanding day had by all Don - congrats!! Since you can't find any evidence of a house site, tavern or inn you must be dealing with a scattered cache or spill of early coins. Were they found in close proximity to each other, or were they spread around a bit? And were they in a cultivated field where the action of plowing for hundreds of years could have moved them around a lot? A spill or cache of coins I found about 3 years ago in a cultivated field had been spread out in an elongated fashion in the direction of how the field was always planted which likely meant all the coins were initially located at the same spot. I also found those 2 scattered caches of hammered silver coins a few years ago that had been intentionally buried, but some of them had been skimmed off by deep plowing and spread around in the field. It seems your site was probably similar to one of these 2 scenarios. Other than buttons what other items were found? Any household debris or military items? The first spill I discussed above was a very short distance from a small, early camp where we found 200-300 buttons and other camp items. Anyway, just doing a little brainstorming, but guess you may never know what was going on at that site unless research provides some answers. Super cool site!

 

[digging440yrs]

WOW, THATS A GREAT DAY !!

 

[Diggin Dude]

That's what surprised me....no large cents! When you find more that 35 colonials in one fairly concentrated area you would think that whoever was there, stayed there and lost coins after this period. I have 2 thoughts. A small jug of coppers got buried, forgot about, and at some later date got hit by a plow and spread around a bit. Second thought is the original farmhouse could have been located here and perhaps they sold cows, vegetables, fruit or whatever and money got lost there before they moved the house. No evidence of any foundation.

If I didn't see it with my own eyes it would be hard to believe, but I was there. Such a concentration of colonial time period coins in a relatively small area was incredible to see. My mind was racing last night wondering what went on in that area back then, your aforementioned thoughts are definitely a great possibility.

I'm truly happy for my fellow club brothers and sisters on their awesome finds! Truly a Cinderella day! Thanks Don !

 

[coinman123]

UHHH... I'm at a lose for words. All I can say is incredible. You found 6 times the colonial coppers that I found all last year! Anyways, Congrats, I am still in shock after just seeing the title.

I think you had a banner hunt IMHO. I don't think I have seen that many coppers found in one day on here...EVER

 

[hunting deer]

That's alot of early coppers!

 

[doninbrewster]

An outstanding day had by all Don - congrats!! Since you can't find any evidence of a house site, tavern or inn you must be dealing with a scattered cache or spill of early coins. Were they found in close proximity to each other, or were they spread around a bit? And were they in a cultivated field where the action of plowing for hundreds of years could have moved them around a lot? A spill or cache of coins I found about 3 years ago in a cultivated field had been spread out in an elongated fashion in the direction of how the field was always planted which likely meant all the coins were initially located at the same spot. I also found those 2 scattered caches of hammered silver coins a few years ago that had been intentionally buried, but some of them had been skimmed off by deep plowing and spread around in the field. It seems your site was probably similar to one of these 2 scenarios. Other than buttons what other items were found? Any household debris or military items? The first spill I discussed above was a very short distance from a small, early camp where we found 200-300 buttons and other camp items. Anyway, just doing a little brainstorming, but guess you may never know what was going on at that site unless research provides some answers. Super cool site!

If you noticed in my follow up post, I agree. I think it was a buried cache that was spread out by a plow over the years. We also found a number of early buttons, musket balls and early indications of occupation. There were straggler coppers found at different parts of the site, but most came from a fairly small area. I encountered a similar thing last year when invited to hunt another nearby site. I got there after 55 coppers were already found and adding what I found along with the person who had permission, a total of about 70 pieces came out of that site. That site was remarkable due to the variety of coins which included state coppers from CT, NJ, VT and MA along with Fugios, Nova Constellatios, Nova Eboracs, KG II, KGIII, counterfeit British as well as early large cents. When you come upon a site like this it's just amazing. Can't imagine a site like this of hammered silver. It's what keeps us going.

 

[Metal Illness]

Simply AMAZING Hunt for the Group!! Obviously a "Virgin" Site, what a Great day Big Congrats to all. Just one Colonial Copper is high on my wish list, it might never happen here in SW Ohio, but I'll keep swinging!

 

[Don in SJ]

Wow Don, what a great spot! Your coins are in excellent condition considering how a lot of "New York" coppers come out of the ground, love it! I looked at the reverse photo of the NJ and that appears to be a "J" reverse, which has 10 Obverse possibilities, but would look closely for details of a Maris 14 or Maris 34, which are the two most likely combinations based on rarity. Could you please either email me or PM me with County and State found in for the survey, and if any others found there or in the previous hunt you mentioned that I might not have in the survey. Would appreciate the data very much so.............. Don

 

[Iron Patch]

Now that looks like fun!

The site simply could have ended by 1793 or 94 and if there was no one there to drop a large cent, there is no large cents. Usually the coppers are combined because most sites span the heavy circulation years for each, but in this case it's more like a time capsule. Possible it could have been a cache but I don't think the lack of large cents is relevant to that theory.

Many backmarked buttons from this area?