brianc053
Hero Member
- Jan 27, 2015
- 985
- 3,412
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- Detector(s) used
- Minelab Equinox 800
XP Deus 2
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Hi everyone! @SlateBeltDigger and I got together again yesterday morning at a home over in Pennsylvania that we had visited a week ago, and we had an excellent day! We had a 3rd member of the team with us (but he's not on TNet, so I'll just call him Tom).
Short story: SlateBeltDigger found a Jersey Copper (1786), Connecticut Copper and an unidentified large copper (probably a King George halfpenny). I found a Draped Bust that I believe is an 1807, a Colonial era pewter button styled after a Carlos III Spanish 8-Real, a 1904 Indian Head Cent, and a cool brewery token circa 1900. "Tom" found some cool relics also (buttons, a token, etc.) but no old coins. Pictures below.
Longer story:
We originally visited this house last weekend at the end of a long morning of detecting a yet-to-be-planted farm field. On that day I decided to knock on the door because the property was adjacent to the farm field, the home had a sprawling yard surrounding it, and "Tom" thought he knew the name of the family that owned it, and he was right. The owners were happy to allow us to detect the yard. On that first day "Tom" found a dandy button but everything else we found that day was post Civil War. We didn't stay long last weekend because we were exhausted.
According to my research the house was built between 1860 and 1874, so when we returned yesterday we were hoping for Indian Head Cents and maybe a few silver dimes. We didn't expect to be pulling 200+ year old coppers.
And my first few finds fit the profile: a 1904 IHC and right next to it a cool Phoenix Brewery (Buffalo, NY) token that has been holed as to make a necklace. That brewery operated from 1887-1920, giving a pretty good date range on the token.
I was happy with those finds and decided to check in with SlateBeltDigger. He was VERY happy because he had just pulled two yet-to-be-identified large coppers. He found them in an area where we'd looked the previous weekend (good reminder to check areas more than once) and where "Tom's" dandy button had been found. (Honestly: how we missed these coppers the previous weekend mystifies me...).
Being a great guy SlateBeltDigger offered to have me and "Tom" join him in the area, but before we could even get swinging SlateBeltDigger pulled a 3rd large copper!
About 5 minutes later I pulled one too, the last of the large coppers we found yesterday.
After some careful dirt removal we were able to identify:
- SlateBelt Digger: 1786 Jersey Copper (later we learned it's a Maris 16-L, common) (his first Jersey Copper)
- SlateBelt Digger: Connecticut Copper (also his first CT Copper)
- SlateBelt Digger: unknown KG halfpenny
- Brian: 1807 Draped Bust US Large Cent.
Let me talk about that Draped Bust for a minute: at first I thought it was an 1803, but I took high resolution pictures of the dates and then overlayed them on top of stock pictures of 1803/4/5/7 and used the transparency 0-100% slider to compare. The 1807 lines up much better than the 1803. Let me know if you want to see video of this comparison.
Anyway, before leaving the large copper area I also pulled the pewter button pictured below, and to me this is maybe the coolest thing I found given that it's very unusual and unique. (Although I do see another similar one talked about back in 2020 on here: https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/colonial-patriotic-pewter-button-faux-spanish-reale.628350/).
My button is cool because it's a mirror image. Look carefully at the "8" and the "M" - they're on the wrong sides. I think this is because someone made this button by pressing another button with the Carlos III 8-Real design into warm pewter.
What an amazing day - especially for SlateBeltDigger! Congrats to you sir!
(Final picture is all the other stuff I dug yesterday. The toy truck is a fire truck that I cut in half with my shovel...oops. Maybe a Hubley from the 1930s?)
Short story: SlateBeltDigger found a Jersey Copper (1786), Connecticut Copper and an unidentified large copper (probably a King George halfpenny). I found a Draped Bust that I believe is an 1807, a Colonial era pewter button styled after a Carlos III Spanish 8-Real, a 1904 Indian Head Cent, and a cool brewery token circa 1900. "Tom" found some cool relics also (buttons, a token, etc.) but no old coins. Pictures below.
Longer story:
We originally visited this house last weekend at the end of a long morning of detecting a yet-to-be-planted farm field. On that day I decided to knock on the door because the property was adjacent to the farm field, the home had a sprawling yard surrounding it, and "Tom" thought he knew the name of the family that owned it, and he was right. The owners were happy to allow us to detect the yard. On that first day "Tom" found a dandy button but everything else we found that day was post Civil War. We didn't stay long last weekend because we were exhausted.
According to my research the house was built between 1860 and 1874, so when we returned yesterday we were hoping for Indian Head Cents and maybe a few silver dimes. We didn't expect to be pulling 200+ year old coppers.
And my first few finds fit the profile: a 1904 IHC and right next to it a cool Phoenix Brewery (Buffalo, NY) token that has been holed as to make a necklace. That brewery operated from 1887-1920, giving a pretty good date range on the token.
I was happy with those finds and decided to check in with SlateBeltDigger. He was VERY happy because he had just pulled two yet-to-be-identified large coppers. He found them in an area where we'd looked the previous weekend (good reminder to check areas more than once) and where "Tom's" dandy button had been found. (Honestly: how we missed these coppers the previous weekend mystifies me...).
Being a great guy SlateBeltDigger offered to have me and "Tom" join him in the area, but before we could even get swinging SlateBeltDigger pulled a 3rd large copper!
About 5 minutes later I pulled one too, the last of the large coppers we found yesterday.
After some careful dirt removal we were able to identify:
- SlateBelt Digger: 1786 Jersey Copper (later we learned it's a Maris 16-L, common) (his first Jersey Copper)
- SlateBelt Digger: Connecticut Copper (also his first CT Copper)
- SlateBelt Digger: unknown KG halfpenny
- Brian: 1807 Draped Bust US Large Cent.
Let me talk about that Draped Bust for a minute: at first I thought it was an 1803, but I took high resolution pictures of the dates and then overlayed them on top of stock pictures of 1803/4/5/7 and used the transparency 0-100% slider to compare. The 1807 lines up much better than the 1803. Let me know if you want to see video of this comparison.
Anyway, before leaving the large copper area I also pulled the pewter button pictured below, and to me this is maybe the coolest thing I found given that it's very unusual and unique. (Although I do see another similar one talked about back in 2020 on here: https://www.treasurenet.com/threads/colonial-patriotic-pewter-button-faux-spanish-reale.628350/).
My button is cool because it's a mirror image. Look carefully at the "8" and the "M" - they're on the wrong sides. I think this is because someone made this button by pressing another button with the Carlos III 8-Real design into warm pewter.
What an amazing day - especially for SlateBeltDigger! Congrats to you sir!
(Final picture is all the other stuff I dug yesterday. The toy truck is a fire truck that I cut in half with my shovel...oops. Maybe a Hubley from the 1930s?)
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