Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
Awesome mid-1800s merchant's token recovered yesterday with a cool story behind it
Sorry, but before I get into the token story you have to hear the long version of yesterday's hunt as I always do for documentation purposes. My good buddy Dan and I met around mid-morning yesterday for our first hunt of 2015. We had to brave the cold and partially frozen ground, and needed to get ourselves on a new spot to dig. We first went by to visit and chat with one of the local farmers who has been letting us hunt his properties, but he was not available. That was a disappointment as we had our hearts set on trying to get onto one of his large and very early sites. From there we went to knock on another door of a man who owned what we felt could be a killer site. Dan had befriended the guy during the summer, so we felt our chances were good. But he told us that it was not a good time as his wife had just had a relapse regarding her previous bout with cancer. That was the 2nd strange incident of that sort as just a few days ago I had researched a great new spot and had determined who the owner was. But the next day before I headed out to knock on the door, I saw in the obituaries where he had just died. Very strange. Anyway, our day was certainly not going as planned, and we decided to make a brief stop at a wooded site to see if we could stumble across an early house site which we knew was a possibility there, but not much was found. We then made our way back to the site we hunted last spring where we recovered several Va buttons, a shako plume holder, and other CW era finds. We especially wanted to check out the wooded slope leading down to the creek, but it turned out to be a big goose egg. Things were looking bleak at that point, but from there we decided to knock at another door about a property we've had our eye on for some time since its in an area of early land patents, and backs up to a nice creek. We ended up meeting a very friendly family, and after securing permission and chatting for a bit we headed to the site. It was a large field that had a nice, high spot in the back, but when we arrived there we immediately noticed a large area between the field and the creek had been recently logged. As we walked up the sandy logging road we started seeing an ever-increasing amount of brick leading to a nice looking knoll. Soon some of the things we were finding, although relatively few, confirmed the existence of a very early site, probably pre-1650. Dan found most of the goodies there which he'll cover in his post. But between us we eyeballed several pipe stems with huge bores - either 7 or 8/64ths in diameter which equates to 1620-1680. We just gave it a brief look, and definitely will be back for a closer inspection later. But we wanted to walk the front field before dark to see what other interesting things might turn up. And the very first knoll we approached turned out to be loaded with brick and iron, but unfortunately the finds appeared to be 19th century. But there were a lot of high toned targets and we had fun digging there until dark. My very first target was a copper, but it turned out to not be a coin but a very interesting token. It was a cool looking advertising piece from hatter James Wolff of Petersburg, and likely dates to the 1850s. I ran across a very nice discussion of Wolff and his tokens, and it presents a very cool history of him and his business, and his Confederate military history. You can check it out at the following link:
Hatter James E. Wolff of Petersburg Va | NovaNumismatics.com
As the temps dropped down to the mid-20s and darkness approached, I was finally able to pry Dan from the field and we called it a day. But at least we have an interesting site to return to on our next outing. Had fun buddy!
Sorry, but before I get into the token story you have to hear the long version of yesterday's hunt as I always do for documentation purposes. My good buddy Dan and I met around mid-morning yesterday for our first hunt of 2015. We had to brave the cold and partially frozen ground, and needed to get ourselves on a new spot to dig. We first went by to visit and chat with one of the local farmers who has been letting us hunt his properties, but he was not available. That was a disappointment as we had our hearts set on trying to get onto one of his large and very early sites. From there we went to knock on another door of a man who owned what we felt could be a killer site. Dan had befriended the guy during the summer, so we felt our chances were good. But he told us that it was not a good time as his wife had just had a relapse regarding her previous bout with cancer. That was the 2nd strange incident of that sort as just a few days ago I had researched a great new spot and had determined who the owner was. But the next day before I headed out to knock on the door, I saw in the obituaries where he had just died. Very strange. Anyway, our day was certainly not going as planned, and we decided to make a brief stop at a wooded site to see if we could stumble across an early house site which we knew was a possibility there, but not much was found. We then made our way back to the site we hunted last spring where we recovered several Va buttons, a shako plume holder, and other CW era finds. We especially wanted to check out the wooded slope leading down to the creek, but it turned out to be a big goose egg. Things were looking bleak at that point, but from there we decided to knock at another door about a property we've had our eye on for some time since its in an area of early land patents, and backs up to a nice creek. We ended up meeting a very friendly family, and after securing permission and chatting for a bit we headed to the site. It was a large field that had a nice, high spot in the back, but when we arrived there we immediately noticed a large area between the field and the creek had been recently logged. As we walked up the sandy logging road we started seeing an ever-increasing amount of brick leading to a nice looking knoll. Soon some of the things we were finding, although relatively few, confirmed the existence of a very early site, probably pre-1650. Dan found most of the goodies there which he'll cover in his post. But between us we eyeballed several pipe stems with huge bores - either 7 or 8/64ths in diameter which equates to 1620-1680. We just gave it a brief look, and definitely will be back for a closer inspection later. But we wanted to walk the front field before dark to see what other interesting things might turn up. And the very first knoll we approached turned out to be loaded with brick and iron, but unfortunately the finds appeared to be 19th century. But there were a lot of high toned targets and we had fun digging there until dark. My very first target was a copper, but it turned out to not be a coin but a very interesting token. It was a cool looking advertising piece from hatter James Wolff of Petersburg, and likely dates to the 1850s. I ran across a very nice discussion of Wolff and his tokens, and it presents a very cool history of him and his business, and his Confederate military history. You can check it out at the following link:
Hatter James E. Wolff of Petersburg Va | NovaNumismatics.com
As the temps dropped down to the mid-20s and darkness approached, I was finally able to pry Dan from the field and we called it a day. But at least we have an interesting site to return to on our next outing. Had fun buddy!
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