A long time mystery solved

[Older The Better]

When I first started detecting I went to a barn site and found part of a brass plate

a few years later I found another piece…

I’ve always wanted to know what it said but there just wasn’t enough there

many more years have passed and I’ve gone over the site with a radio shack detector to an ancient whites bought at auction to a Garrett 400 now to an xp deus ii and the rest of the plate has eluded me. Until this afternoon, it was so nice I just wanted to be out after work, grabbed the detector and hit the barn site, put on the tekkna program, and fist hit was “the”

second hit nearby was the bottom left hand fragment

and close to that was the top right fragment.

I got selective After that looking for the same tone found nothing but a few bullets and a square nut which my dues seems to love.
I got home and dug out the other two pieces to see what I had… after some straightening in a vise I laid the pieces out and i finally have enough for an id.

I’m missing one piece that says “city”. I haven’t found a lot of information yet but looks like they sold all kinds of things in the early 1900’s. My guess is it’s off a machine or maybe a wagon type piece of equipment.
Feels great to have a long time mystery solved… but now I’ll definitely be on the hunt for “city”

 

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[Older The Better]

Here’s a little of what I found, looks like they made a little of everything

 

[oldmxrat]

That's a really cool puzzle you found over the years, congrats!

 

[robertk]

That's really cool. Piecing together history!

 

[Gare]

You have done OUTSTANDING I am sure I would have thrown those pieces away when found them. We can learn so much from this site Thank you for your reporting and you sure are a very nice addition to this forum

 

[Hunk-a-lead]

When I first started detecting I went to a barn site and found part of a brass plateView attachment 2194983 a few years later I found another piece…
View attachment 2194984
I’ve always wanted to know what it said but there just wasn’t enough there
View attachment 2194988
many more years have passed and I’ve gone over the site with a radio shack detector to an ancient whites bought at auction to a Garrett 400 now to an xp deus ii and the rest of the plate has eluded me. Until this afternoon, it was so nice I just wanted to be out after work, grabbed the detector and hit the barn site, put on the tekkna program, and fist hit was “the”
View attachment 2194985
second hit nearby was the bottom left hand fragment
View attachment 2194986and close to that was the top right fragment. View attachment 2194987I got selective After that looking for the same tone found nothing but a few bullets and a square nut which my dues seems to love.
I got home and dug out the other two pieces to see what I had… after some straightening in a vise I laid the pieces out and i finally have enough for an id. View attachment 2194989
I’m missing one piece that says “city”. I haven’t found a lot of information yet but looks like they sold all kinds of things in the early 1900’s. My guess is it’s off a machine or maybe a wagon type piece of equipment.
Feels great to have a long time mystery solved… but now I’ll definitely be on the hunt for “city”

well done on putting that together! quite interesting. btw, we are practically neighbors