Colonial Era Wax Seal (My Third One)

Don in SJ

Silver Member
May 20, 2005
4,932
837
Detector(s) used
MINELAB SE Pro
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
With the warm weather we had today, I just had to make an effort to get out for a couple hours, so I went to a site that in years past was real good to me with early buttons, coins and other relics.

Right away I in a tight spot that I previously recovered a couple William III Halfpence and a KGI and KGII coppers from I got a reading that was just a tad better than a shotgun casing. To my delight I recognized what it was right away from finding my 2nd one last year. My third Wax Fob Seal.

With all the crud on it I was happy to note that the stone(in this case glass) was intact, so cool, I now had two complete wax seals and one without the stone/glass.

I also noticed a design on it and put it away till I was done with the hunt, but all the time I was wondering what the "design" on the seal would be.

Took some pictures as found, along with the other finds for the short hunt this morning and then first cleaned it with a toothpick, and noticed there was some gilt left, so put it in peroxide and that cleaned up more and showed what gilt was left. But it also revealed that the glass was severely cracked!

So I got out Silly Putty and made an impression in it and to my delight a nice bust of a rather large nosed figure was rather clear. So Don was a Happy Camper......

I am open to suggestions on if I should try and seal the cracked glass, I was thinking like how you repair windshields with super glue like stuff, but was advised not to try it, but open for any decent suggestion, if not I will leave as is.

Not sure of the age of this but hoping mid 1700s to late 1700s..... Either way nice having 3 of them.........

Don
 

Attachments

  • site 151 hunt.jpg
    site 151 hunt.jpg
    164.1 KB · Views: 389
  • Wax Seal Dirty 1.jpg
    Wax Seal Dirty 1.jpg
    93 KB · Views: 448
  • Wax Seal Dirty Bust.jpg
    Wax Seal Dirty Bust.jpg
    71.3 KB · Views: 469
  • Wax Seal Clean.jpg
    Wax Seal Clean.jpg
    95.6 KB · Views: 387
  • Wax Seal Clean Bust.jpg
    Wax Seal Clean Bust.jpg
    79.6 KB · Views: 538
  • Wax Seal impression.jpg
    Wax Seal impression.jpg
    199.2 KB · Views: 432
Upvote 12
Geat looking wax seal Don. How deep was the seal and did it give you a solid repeatable signal ? :thumbsup:

Bubba65
 

Awesome find Don! I would leave as is unless you get professional help to do the repair.
 

That's awesome man! Congrats!
 

Geat looking wax seal Don. How deep was the seal and did it give you a solid repeatable signal ? :thumbsup:

Bubba65

All the coins found previously there all within 5-10 feet of where the seal was found, including the seal, were about 5-7 inches. The seal was not a great reading, it read just above where most shotgun shell readings read on the Explorer, sound was an in-between high and normal iron beep, think perhaps becuase it was not a solid target? I thought my one I found last year screamed out, but that one was massive compared to this one.
 

Great find Don, you are accumulating a nice collection of these fob seals. A wax seal is one colonial relic I have never dug.
 

Wax seal
 

Attachments

  • tumblr_lks8ltAvgX1qg3j0oo1_400.jpg
    tumblr_lks8ltAvgX1qg3j0oo1_400.jpg
    36.2 KB · Views: 175
Glad to see you got out Don. I miss your posts. Great wax seal and buttons. Look at the honker on that guy. Must be related to King George
:0)
 

From the top of my head these are early 1800s. Nice to get it so complete!
 

From the top of my head these are early 1800s. Nice to get it so complete!

Before I posted I did some researching in hopes of determing age, I just got done going thru many pages on a UK website and found similar examples of the fob type with gold gilt, with either a stone or glass date from as early as 1750 to into the 1800s.
http://finds.org.uk/database/search/results/objecttype/seal+matrix

I will stick with a 1700s era date for this one, due to the bust, due to the age of the site found at and due the examples on that UK website giving ages of 18th century being probable. But unless we can find where it says X type of wax fob seals were started at X date, then I will assume it is colonial. The bust figure would be my leaning indicator towards age. :)
 

Before I posted I did some researching in hopes of determing age, I just got done going thru many pages on a UK website and found similar examples of the fob type with gold gilt, with either a stone or glass date from as early as 1750 to into the 1800s.
Search results from the database - Page: 1 - Database

I will stick with a 1700s era date for this one, due to the bust, due to the age of the site found at and due the examples on that UK website giving ages of 18th century being probable. But unless we can find where it says X type of wax fob seals were started at X date, then I will assume it is colonial. The bust figure would be my leaning indicator towards age. :)
http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/ukdfddata/showrecords.php?product=15321&cat=all
UK Finds Database - - - UKDFD
http://www.ukdfd.co.uk/ukdfddata/showrecords.php?product=39256&cat=115


True, just checked my book, & although many are dated 19th C on the UKDFD, the most likely date is 1750-1800 according to my book.
 

Last edited:
Don,
As nice as it is I think that I'd leave it as is. jmho.............HH
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top