Colonial silver milestone reached with recovery of a cut pistareen

[Bill D. (VA)]

As has been the case for the past few years, it seems like my relic hunting season always wants to start very slowly. I’ve only been able to get into one new site for the fall so far, but that’s mostly due to waiting for crops to be harvested and the ongoing hunting season. My good buddy Dan and I thought we had the opportunity this past weekend to finally get back into one of our best sites from last year that produced nearly 20 pieces of colonial silver. But the beans were only partially cut in our hotspot so we decided to roam around in other parts of the huge site. Things were rather slow, but we were happy to see the big combine finally showing up and starting to cut the beans allowing us access to the majority of the area we wanted to hunt. We were eventually able to pick out a few buttons and buckle pieces from the heavy iron, and I was finally able to snag a piece of cut silver on a very questionable signal as dusk was approaching. It’s not going to win any beauty contests, but I was thrilled to finally get on the board for the new season. And it turned out this was my 150[SUP]th[/SUP] colonial silver coin I’ve dug in the roughly 15 years I’ve been seriously into the early relics. Hopefully this will help get things jump started and be a good omen heading into the heart of the season.

 

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[johnnyblaze]

Congrats on your Milestone Hunt Billy Boy

We never get cut silver up here...Never

Blaze

 

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[terpfan]

Congrats on a major milestone, Bill. I'll bet it takes less than 15 years to get your next 150 colonial silvers. You are in the "zone" and locked in! I see that this cut silver seems to have been holed. Have you found other cut pieces that were holed? Its interesting to me that in this case a holed coin appears to have been cut, and not vice versa.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

It would be interesting to see if any of your silver's that are quartered up match up with other pieces, that would be awesome if they did.

The only chance to match up pieces would be if they were found at the same site. But my cut pieces (about 75 of them) have come from many different places. At all the multi-silver sites I've hunted I've only been able to match coin parts up one time. They were found a few weeks and about 50 ft apart. Pic of that coin is shown below. That was quite a fluke and will probably never happen again.

 

[dfx-kevin]

Way to go, hope you keep at it

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Congrats on a major milestone, Bill. I'll bet it takes less than 15 years to get your next 150 colonial silvers. You are in the "zone" and locked in! I see that this cut silver seems to have been holed. Have you found other cut pieces that were holed? Its interesting to me that in this case a holed coin appears to have been cut, and not vice versa.

Steve - I've found quite a few holed coins over the years as it was a fairly common practice. The pic below from almost 10 years ago shows a close-up of a few examples of these. I have quite a few more now, but its too much trouble to pull them all together for a group pic. But you may be able to see many of them in this recent photo if you zoom in a couple of times on the pic.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Well done on the pistareen. We're stuck at 27 on the Spanish silver total this year, so send us some Colonial Silver mojo!



Congrats on reaching an enviable milestone!


Buck

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Man, to live in Va. Your finds and posts are inspirational Bill. I can't wait to see your next 150 Colonial Silvers!

 

[terpfan]

Steve - I've found quite a few holed coins over the years as it was a fairly common practice. The pic below from almost 10 years ago shows a close-up of a few examples of these. I have quite a few more now, but its too much trouble to pull them all together for a group pic. But you may be able to see many of them in this recent photo if you zoom in a couple of times on the pic.

View attachment 901719

View attachment 901721

Wow, what an impressive "family" picture Bill. I love that photo! I'm afraid I didn't do a good job asking my question about the holed coins. I don't recall seeing cut coins ("pieces")with holes in them, even though full coins are commonly seen with holes in them. Since your pistareen is cut AND has a hole in it, I thought it might be unusual. Since the hole is right at the cut edge, I assumed a cut was made into a coin that already had a hole in it.

 

[TennPenny]

an impressive collection of colonial silver! congratulations

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Wow, what an impressive "family" picture Bill. I love that photo! I'm afraid I didn't do a good job asking my question about the holed coins. I don't recall seeing cut coins ("pieces")with holes in them, even though full coins are commonly seen with holes in them. Since your pistareen is cut AND has a hole in it, I thought it might be unusual. Since the hole is right at the cut edge, I assumed a cut was made into a coin that already had a hole in it.

Sorry I misinterpreted your question Steve. You're right - I don't think I've ever seen a cut piece with a hole in it. But its a very odd shaped hole and in a location different from any of the others I've found. Not sure it was put there with the intent of using it to secure it in a pocket with a string as was the practice. But I can't offer any other explanations. Guess we'll never know. Thanks for bringing up that interesting observation.

 

[jewelerguy]

super sweet. congrats on #150

 

[Steve in PA]

The only chance to match up pieces would be if they were found at the same site. But my cut pieces (about 75 of them) have come from many different places. At all the multi-silver sites I've hunted I've only been able to match coin parts up one time. They were found a few weeks and about 50 ft apart. Pic of that coin is shown below. That was quite a fluke and will probably never happen again.

View attachment 901716

Bill, I would be hesitant to say that one was cut intentionally. Looks more like a break, perhaps from a plow?

 

[detroitdigger]

Awesome finds, very cool.

 

[matt092079]

Congrats, Bill. My first year into detecting and I found 3 Spanish silver, 2 of which were cut, 1 being a pistareen. Still waiting for my next. Good luck on the future hunts as I'm sure you'll do well with the amount of research put into it!

 

[Silver Tree Chaser]

Bill - Sorry for the belated congrats on hitting your 150 milestone. I plan on reaching the same # of colonial-silver, as long as I can live to be 130 years old and remain in good enough health to swing a coil. So what's your target date for hitting 200?

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Bill - Sorry for the belated congrats on hitting your 150 milestone. I plan on reaching the same # of colonial-silver, as long as I can live to be 130 years old and remain in good enough health to swing a coil. So what's your target date for hitting 200?

Thanks Jim. I've averaged about 10 per year for 15 years, but the actual numbers vary greatly from year to year. That's especially been true the last couple of seasons with 15 and 24. But I don't think I can keep up that pace, especially since I'm changing my site focus. Instead of hitting mostly 1700s sites I'm now devoting this season to using the 1600s patent maps to get on the earliest sites. Even if I can get into several of those I doubt many coins will be found due to their scarcity at these types of sites. The first one of these I got into this fall (c1642) had a fair number of early buckles and lots of musketballs, but not the first coin. But I wasn't shocked at that result. Basically I'm willing to sacrifice quantity for quality, plus it will be fun to change things up a bit. And I'm hoping for several opportunities for some serious pit digging which is much more fun than detecting. Have you set any short or long term goals for yourself aside from the obvious "digging as many tree coins as humanely possible"? Good luck and keep in touch ..... Bill

 

[Wes-N-VA]

Way to go Bill!! It is always nice to pull some silver and congrats on your 150th piece. Maybe one day I can say that lol. Good luck as the season gets in to high gear here and the crops are finally coming out with haste. Now the cold winds are going to start blowing. HH!

Wes

 

[Mi$terG]

That's an amazing tally. You must be really proud- congrats, Bill! I only have to find another 149 to catch you!