Glen's Loyalists
Full Member
Here some finds from our latest outing to a later 18th to late 19th century inn.
This very overgrown site is a difficult place to detect, but once we got into the weeds, that's where the finds were.
Among them was a coat full of buttons from the 16th regiment of foot. This regiment was in Nova Scotia during the early 1850's for a few years and returned again during the American Civil War when the British upped their defenses here. These two-piece buttons would be from that time.
These were scattered throughout the property and we only detected bits here and there. No way we got them all in one outing, I suspect there are many more. Perhaps a few members of the regiment stayed there for a bit. Unlikely though, it's remote and would have been more of a place to stay while passing thru I would think. They also could have had a number of old coats.
Coins seem to be few and far between, but what was found are all very interesting in one way or another:
First up was this broken 1806/07 British halfpenny. I have never found a broken coin before and these are thick. It certainly appears broken but might be cut. Perhaps someone needed change.
Next was this worn but not corroded William and Mary halfpenny. The double portrait is unmistakable. Although the date is not visible, all date from 1694, and it would have been about 100 years old when lost. Hard to photograph, it looks better in hand. We have found two William and Mary Farthings in the past but this is our first halfpenny.
Now here is an interesting one, a lead counterfeit 8 reals. Bent in half and fired out into a field, someone was upset.
This is the second one we found, my son got a pewter one of a later type, dated 1832, on my wife's families camp a number of years back. As I have never posted this, here it is for comparison:
Someday we'll find a real one.
I really don't know what to do with this. I would love to straighten it but am afraid it will break in half, and one side is a bit crushed closed, I don't want to force it too much. I also worry about loss of detail if the mud works off the lead. Any suggestions?
This next coin is one of the nicest Thistle halfpennies we have found. I know I have shown some pretty grotty coins here, due to the high acidy in our soil, but we do get nice ones too.
Crotal bells are always a nice find. This one is later, but before 1870 I would think.
Here is a really nice cufflink that I found. It was quite a surprise when I gave the face a wipe. It appears to be onyx with a single foiled glass insert, not 5 separate ones. The mechanism on the back is unusual.
My son found this neat WWI era lighter, likely lost by a hunter or logger, it's complete.
I found this old padlock. For all its size, all that holds the lock in place is a pin thru the thin metal sides. It looks like all you would need to get that open is determination, but it's likely tougher than that.
Here is an interesting strap end or perhaps buckle part that I found. I have not seen this type before. I am thinking horse tack but if any of you have any idea I would love to know. Due to the way it is bent my son suggested an epaulet mount of some sort but I think it is too heavy for that. The quality is very good. You can see at the break where there would have been two attachments to a leather strap, I would think.
And my son got this nice handle. Very robust, from its design I suspect it has some age to it.
The amount of cartridges here is huge. For every one good signal we got, there were at least 20 cartridges, or the business end of bullets. We also got a large amount of shot gun bases, many dated back to the early 1900's. The vast majority are Dominion shells, usually Canuck or Imperial, I have hunted with those myself, but the one below is 1935 to 50's, the REM UMC Sureshot is 1915 -42, the Nitro Express is 1911-34 and the Holland and Holland by Eley would be before 1920. Most get tossed, but we try to keep a nice example of each different one we find. There is a great reference for these: https://cartridge-corner.com/heads.htm
We don't find many 2 ringers, so that's nice. Also a couple of bucks were found, they are always difficult to track down with the pin pointer, and a good size musket ball. We also found quite a number of squashed ones.
Here are some old 38 Smith and Wesson Peters casings. It appears these can date back to the 1880's or so, predating the 38 Special, from what I read.
These are casings to a Snider-Enfield. These 57 caliber rifles were used from 1866 until 1880 militarily and were replaced by Lee-Endfield's after that. Halifax Citadel has the worlds largest collection of them and during the summer tourists can fire them at the fort for an unreasonable fee.
And, of course, shoe bits, and flat buttons:
And finally, as I am writing this I noticed that a strap-on ice shoe that we found on the same hunt, and is sitting on my desk, is marked with a broad arrow and BO for British Ordnance. British Ordnance was formed in the 1680's and was disbanded in 1855. Based at the Tower in London, they were in control of all military hardware. We find quite a lot of these, so many that we often leave them where they are. I am not even sure why I took this one. An old out building on our property has a number of them lying about in it. Now I am going to have to check them all, I have never seen one marked with a broad arrow before. I found a second one on the same hunt but placed it in a boundary wall. I guess we'll go back for it. It's a good excuse anyway.
Happy hunting...
This very overgrown site is a difficult place to detect, but once we got into the weeds, that's where the finds were.
Among them was a coat full of buttons from the 16th regiment of foot. This regiment was in Nova Scotia during the early 1850's for a few years and returned again during the American Civil War when the British upped their defenses here. These two-piece buttons would be from that time.
These were scattered throughout the property and we only detected bits here and there. No way we got them all in one outing, I suspect there are many more. Perhaps a few members of the regiment stayed there for a bit. Unlikely though, it's remote and would have been more of a place to stay while passing thru I would think. They also could have had a number of old coats.
Coins seem to be few and far between, but what was found are all very interesting in one way or another:
First up was this broken 1806/07 British halfpenny. I have never found a broken coin before and these are thick. It certainly appears broken but might be cut. Perhaps someone needed change.
Next was this worn but not corroded William and Mary halfpenny. The double portrait is unmistakable. Although the date is not visible, all date from 1694, and it would have been about 100 years old when lost. Hard to photograph, it looks better in hand. We have found two William and Mary Farthings in the past but this is our first halfpenny.
Now here is an interesting one, a lead counterfeit 8 reals. Bent in half and fired out into a field, someone was upset.
This is the second one we found, my son got a pewter one of a later type, dated 1832, on my wife's families camp a number of years back. As I have never posted this, here it is for comparison:
Someday we'll find a real one.
I really don't know what to do with this. I would love to straighten it but am afraid it will break in half, and one side is a bit crushed closed, I don't want to force it too much. I also worry about loss of detail if the mud works off the lead. Any suggestions?
This next coin is one of the nicest Thistle halfpennies we have found. I know I have shown some pretty grotty coins here, due to the high acidy in our soil, but we do get nice ones too.
Crotal bells are always a nice find. This one is later, but before 1870 I would think.
Here is a really nice cufflink that I found. It was quite a surprise when I gave the face a wipe. It appears to be onyx with a single foiled glass insert, not 5 separate ones. The mechanism on the back is unusual.
My son found this neat WWI era lighter, likely lost by a hunter or logger, it's complete.
I found this old padlock. For all its size, all that holds the lock in place is a pin thru the thin metal sides. It looks like all you would need to get that open is determination, but it's likely tougher than that.
Here is an interesting strap end or perhaps buckle part that I found. I have not seen this type before. I am thinking horse tack but if any of you have any idea I would love to know. Due to the way it is bent my son suggested an epaulet mount of some sort but I think it is too heavy for that. The quality is very good. You can see at the break where there would have been two attachments to a leather strap, I would think.
And my son got this nice handle. Very robust, from its design I suspect it has some age to it.
The amount of cartridges here is huge. For every one good signal we got, there were at least 20 cartridges, or the business end of bullets. We also got a large amount of shot gun bases, many dated back to the early 1900's. The vast majority are Dominion shells, usually Canuck or Imperial, I have hunted with those myself, but the one below is 1935 to 50's, the REM UMC Sureshot is 1915 -42, the Nitro Express is 1911-34 and the Holland and Holland by Eley would be before 1920. Most get tossed, but we try to keep a nice example of each different one we find. There is a great reference for these: https://cartridge-corner.com/heads.htm
We don't find many 2 ringers, so that's nice. Also a couple of bucks were found, they are always difficult to track down with the pin pointer, and a good size musket ball. We also found quite a number of squashed ones.
Here are some old 38 Smith and Wesson Peters casings. It appears these can date back to the 1880's or so, predating the 38 Special, from what I read.
These are casings to a Snider-Enfield. These 57 caliber rifles were used from 1866 until 1880 militarily and were replaced by Lee-Endfield's after that. Halifax Citadel has the worlds largest collection of them and during the summer tourists can fire them at the fort for an unreasonable fee.
And, of course, shoe bits, and flat buttons:
And finally, as I am writing this I noticed that a strap-on ice shoe that we found on the same hunt, and is sitting on my desk, is marked with a broad arrow and BO for British Ordnance. British Ordnance was formed in the 1680's and was disbanded in 1855. Based at the Tower in London, they were in control of all military hardware. We find quite a lot of these, so many that we often leave them where they are. I am not even sure why I took this one. An old out building on our property has a number of them lying about in it. Now I am going to have to check them all, I have never seen one marked with a broad arrow before. I found a second one on the same hunt but placed it in a boundary wall. I guess we'll go back for it. It's a good excuse anyway.
Happy hunting...
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