Decorative Colonial Sword Guard, Early Seated Liberty Half Dime and Two Cent Piece!

[DownNDirty]

I have been continuing to explore my new field permissions in search of more Colonial home sites, and my luck has continued. The short drive south of my home has paid off well lately. Dirtstalker (Allen) joined me in scouting a field that I had high hopes for and we weren't disappointed. Ten minutes after we got started I found a flat button and some pottery and brick fragments, which told us we were onto a home site; this one turned out to be early to mid 1800s. Other than a few flat buttons the finds were few but I did dig a small trash pit that turned up some interesting pottery.



Late in the day Allen being the bird dog that he is located a nearby home site that was loaded with late 1800s/early 1900s targets. The first target I dug turned out to be a two cent piece that has seen its better days



My last find of the day was a soldier's dog tag that dates to the late 1930s (thanks DCMatt for the id)



Allen scored an interesting cut one cent token from Camp Manufacturing Company, a predecessor to Union Camp



All in all it was a fun day; here is my take



A few days later I explored a high spot in other permission field where I had seen a few pottery sherds. Again it didn't take long before I was finding flat buttons without back marks and other signs of an 18th century home. Score again! The buttons kept coming, as did a nice etched brass cuff link and other goodies





Then last Saturday I invited VMIDigger (Jon) to come up and "share the wealth" as they say. First thing in the morning we did some scouting in a huge field but other than a musket ball we came up empty handed. But there is a LOT of acreage to cover there. Not wanting Jon to go home empty handed I took him to the 18th century home site that I found on the last hunt. He was not disappointed as he dug two very old coins.

My luck continued when I dug a very old brass ring. Hard to tell if is was made in the 1700s or 1800s, but I was happy to recover such an old ring.





Then a few minutes later something really cool happened. I picked up a very strong brass signal and dug one of my new favorite relics-part of an 18th century sword guard! As soon as I knew what I had I looked in Jon's direction to get his attention and he yelled "I dug a one real!" So we compared our simultaneously dug stellar finds.

Here is the sword guard



Thanks (again) to DCMatt I learned that this likely came from a French "short sword" also known as a "court sword" or "dress sword." There is bust on either side-one of a woman with a crown over her head (she is not wearing it) and the other is a man without a crown. Hard to determine the identity of the busts-any guesses? One possibility is King Louis XV and his wife Marie Leszczynska, which would date it to the period of 1725-1768.

To finish off the day we revisited the home site where I found a Connecticut copper. In the adjoining woods I dug this cut 1838 Seated Liberty half dime





This was just the second year that the seated half dime was minted. It's in great condition (other than the fact that it was cut in half). I've found cut reales and cut half pennies before but never a cut US coin. Here are my finds for the day



...and the saga continues...

 

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[DownNDirty]

very awesome finds, love it all

Man those are some amazing finds all around. Very nice job. I love the old coins and relics.

NICE RELICS

Thanks guys

 

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[DownNDirty]

Wow! Great finds. Love the irony of the half of a half dime! LOL

I know-I guess that would be a quarter dime? Or a two and a half cent piece?

 

[DownNDirty]

Good play by play. Good pix. Thanx !

What a great group of finds from pottery to cut coins, congratulations!

Those are some amazing finds!

Congrats on some great finds. It looks like your Half Dime really is a Half Dime !

Exceptional finds! Congratulations!

Stellar spot ... killer cool finds.

Well done.

Thanks for the kind words

DnD, Very Nice Colonial Relics. As said, it appears you have done your homework and research and it has paid off. Hard to say what I like the most, the ring, the sword guard, the coins....heck, I like it all. Very Well Done sir, and Continued success to you.

 

[DownNDirty]

I like the sword guard cage piece - nice ID. But my favorite is that ring. It absolutely screams 18th century! Nice jobs bud - super jealous of that ring

Old rings are the best.
Awesome hunt.

After reading your comments I did some more cleaning of the ring which revealed the pattern on either side and posted a couple of extra pictures. I agree that it is most likely 18th century, especially since all of the relics and coins found at that site have been from the 1700s and early 1800s, but mostly the latter. Thanks for the input-I am definitely stoked to have found a colonial era ring as I know they are fairly scarce.

Way to go Glenn-awesome recoveries and research.
I am in agreement with Scrappy on age of ring. Patina and design just scream 18th century on that. Sword guard is a nice find as well.

 

[DownNDirty]

Congrats on all of the nice finds DND. The sword guard is something special.

I'm a coin guy, so that old seated coin is really sweet looking to me.

Best of luck to you sir!

Thanks Tom. Have you ever seen or heard of a cut half dime?

 

[Patriot Relics]

Congrats again Glenn, that sword guard is killer- I agree with the ID 18th century French court sword. Ring is icing on the cake

 

[thrifty76now]

Awesome finds,and it appears to me that that half dime was mint condition when cut in half so it was worth two and one half cents then?

 

[against the wind]

Some really nice saves,,
You have a collection of early home sites for searching. I envy you.
Congratulations

 

[Silver Searcher]

Cool finds I would say 1700's on the ring

SS

 

[billpa]

That's some good diggin' there.

 

[DownNDirty]

Cool finds I would say 1700's on the ring

SS

Thanks man-I appreciate the id

 

[Carolina Tom]

Thanks Tom. Have you ever seen or heard of a cut half dime?

I’ve not seen them cut to make change. I think that’s what you are getting at, like cut Spanish silvers.

If it were cut to make a smaller denomination, I’d think it would be cut vertically. And that looks like more than 50% to me. I believe that it was broken, which I also don’t see often. I do see trimes broken, on a regular basis, but their thinness makes this more likely.

If someone cut it, you should be able to see where they laid a knife on it, then hit the spine with a “hammer” and scored the coin. If the break is completely ragged, with no scoring, then it was not cut. JMHO.

Great find either way sir.

 

[DownNDirty]

I’ve not seen them cut to make change. I think that’s what you are getting at, like cut Spanish silvers.

If it were cut to make a smaller denomination, I’d think it would be cut vertically. And that looks like more than 50% to me. I believe that it was broken, which I also don’t see often. I do see trimes broken, on a regular basis, but their thinness makes this more likely.

If someone cut it, you should be able to see where they laid a knife on it, then hit the spine with a “hammer” and scored the coin. If the break is completely ragged, with no scoring, then it was not cut. JMHO.

Great find either way sir.

It does look like it was broken, the edge is jagged. Good call!

 

[BLK HOLE]

Those are all some very nice finds, well done Sir well done!

 

[RudyT]

Congratulations buddy!!