Dirty old coins found by a dirty and surly middle aged man

[plehbah2]

My friends,

I have been lurking in the local fields, beating the Rabbitbrush with my magical stick, and digging various pits in the ground looking for old trash. These efforts have met with some success, and now my computer desk is covered with relics from the 1870s and the dirt which has dried and fallen off of them. I have esoteric taste in junk, and have been having lots of fun, but am only including some items here with more mass appeal.

I am lucky to own some land in and around the old business district of an 1870s ghost town with lots of old store sites and cabin sites, so I always have an old cellar or privy I am digging, along with metal detecting in the weeds. The main field is across the county road and about a 30 second walk for me, so I go there a for a little while on a nice evening and hunt for a bit. The little 1853 with arrows Seated Liberty half dime I found last night on a 10 minute hunt. It is the first silver with my new Deus II which did a great job of picking it out of an ungodly amount of square nails. The other coins are from the same little spot in the field where the post office stood, and from a little 5 foot by 4 foot by 4 foot deep cellar which I excavated. That hole gave up a couple of Shield nickels, the Indian Head penny, and some nice old bottles, including the second known example of the best bottle from my area. I didn't include a picture of that because it has the town name on it!

The coins are an 1854 with arrows dime, the 1853 with arrows half dime, a couple of 1866 Shield nickels with rays, a couple of 1867 Shield nickels, an 1872 Shield nickel, and an 1865 Indian Head penny. Also pictured is a lock plate from an old black powder rifle or shotgun, and a neat little bottle I dug out of an 1870s privy a couple of days ago for Dr. Sage's and Dr. Pierce's Catarrh Remedy. That privy also gave up an early 1870s Dr. Hostetter's stomach bitters, half a dozen mining assay cupels, and some lesser but very old bottles for around here. It is hard to find early 1870s bottles in Colorado these days, so I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity.

I have even pictured the finds on a mid-quality paper plate like a pro!

 

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[grasshopper]

Great group of finds there! The title made me laugh

 

[plehbah2]

Great group of finds there! The title made me laugh

The title is sadly 100% true. No washing machine on Earth can get the dirt out of the knees and arse of my trousers.

 

[Almy]

Great finds and a wonderful situation for hunting. No permission or driving needed! Hard to imagine a better circumstance.
One of the nails looks like a cut variety, late 1800s and the other a forged one ("rosehead") that would be earlier.

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

What a FANTASTIC bunch of finds - well done !

 

[Centsless Detecting]

You have everything you need right out the front door. That's amazing. Those coins are great for sure but I'm DYING to get a glimpse of that bottle you described. Could you "edit" the name possibly some how?

 

[plehbah2]

You have everything you need right out the front door. That's amazing. Those coins are great for sure but I'm DYING to get a glimpse of that bottle you described. Could you "edit" the name possibly some how?

I only have the pictures my wife took the night I was cleaning the bottle, so she only got the label, but ask and you shall receive. The bottle is from the local brewery which is in complete ruins in my neighbors yard. It is a fabled local bottle, and only one other specimen is known to exist. There are no known embossed bottles from my town, just this paper label beer. It is an amazing thing that I found one with a legible paper label after 140 years in the ground. This example is for Rocky Mountain Lager Beer, and features a miner with a shovel on the label. The part I redacted says ______ Brewing Co. It is not perfect, but is the only way I would ever obtain an example for my collection. The previously only known example is famous amongst the Colorado big time bottle guys and is locked up in private collections for decades at a time. So I am thrilled to have my example at all. It is a real privilege.

There is still some mud in this picture, but I was afraid to clean anymore. The bottle is now in my museum of local specimens, the label dried and stayed. This bottle dates to about 1881. It is a quart sized amber glass with an applied blob top.

 

[Digger RJ]

My friends,

I have been lurking in the local fields, beating the Rabbitbrush with my magical stick, and digging various pits in the ground looking for old trash. These efforts have met with some success, and now my computer desk is covered with relics from the 1870s and the dirt which has dried and fallen off of them. I have esoteric taste in junk, and have been having lots of fun, but am only including some items here with more mass appeal.

I am lucky to own some land in and around the old business district of an 1870s ghost town with lots of old store sites and cabin sites, so I always have an old cellar or privy I am digging, along with metal detecting in the weeds. The main field is across the county road and about a 30 second walk for me, so I go there a for a little while on a nice evening and hunt for a bit. The little 1853 with arrows Seated Liberty half dime I found last night on a 10 minute hunt. It is the first silver with my new Deus II which did a great job of picking it out of an ungodly amount of square nails. The other coins are from the same little spot in the field where the post office stood, and from a little 5 foot by 4 foot by 4 foot deep cellar which I excavated. That hole gave up a couple of Shield nickels, the Indian Head penny, and some nice old bottles, including the second known example of the best bottle from my area. I didn't include a picture of that because it has the town name on it!

The coins are an 1854 with arrows dime, the 1853 with arrows half dime, a couple of 1866 Shield nickels with rays, a couple of 1867 Shield nickels, an 1872 Shield nickel, and an 1865 Indian Head penny. Also pictured is a lock plate from an old black powder rifle or shotgun, and a neat little bottle I dug out of an 1870s privy a couple of days ago for Dr. Sage's and Dr. Pierce's Catarrh Remedy. That privy also gave up an early 1870s Dr. Hostetter's stomach bitters, half a dozen mining assay cupels, and some lesser but very old bottles for around here. It is hard to find early 1870s bottles in Colorado these days, so I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity.

I have even pictured the finds on a mid-quality paper plate like a pro!

Awesome Hunt!!! Congrats!!!!

 

[CoinsAndThings]

Great finds! Congratulations!

 

[GDub62]

Liked the finds and loved the story behind them. You are indeed a lucky man

 

[Dirty Digger Doug]

The old clear remedy bottle is cool.

 

[Centsless Detecting]

Wow that bottle is amazing. Quite the find with the label mostly intact. Thanks for the information and the picture. Top shelf find for sure. I've dug some that had the paper labels but they immediately disintegrated.

 

[jewelerguy]

really great finds!

 

[oldmxrat]

That's an impressive bunch of finds, congrats!

 

[unclemac]

it sounds like an awesome spot!.... here is a clue.... My old dad told me that when they tore out the old wooden sidewalks in his town... the kids looked for coins that had fallen through the cracks in the old days. Maybe you had something similar once upon a time.

 

[pepperj]

Well done on the detecting and digging.
Nothing beats doing both on your own land.

 

[Trezurehunter]

Nice job on the old coins.

 

[fishstick]

Now that's a mess of GOODIES!!!!! Congratz....

 

[Coinstar magnet]

My friends,

I have been lurking in the local fields, beating the Rabbitbrush with my magical stick, and digging various pits in the ground looking for old trash. These efforts have met with some success, and now my computer desk is covered with relics from the 1870s and the dirt which has dried and fallen off of them. I have esoteric taste in junk, and have been having lots of fun, but am only including some items here with more mass appeal.

I am lucky to own some land in and around the old business district of an 1870s ghost town with lots of old store sites and cabin sites, so I always have an old cellar or privy I am digging, along with metal detecting in the weeds. The main field is across the county road and about a 30 second walk for me, so I go there a for a little while on a nice evening and hunt for a bit. The little 1853 with arrows Seated Liberty half dime I found last night on a 10 minute hunt. It is the first silver with my new Deus II which did a great job of picking it out of an ungodly amount of square nails. The other coins are from the same little spot in the field where the post office stood, and from a little 5 foot by 4 foot by 4 foot deep cellar which I excavated. That hole gave up a couple of Shield nickels, the Indian Head penny, and some nice old bottles, including the second known example of the best bottle from my area. I didn't include a picture of that because it has the town name on it!

The coins are an 1854 with arrows dime, the 1853 with arrows half dime, a couple of 1866 Shield nickels with rays, a couple of 1867 Shield nickels, an 1872 Shield nickel, and an 1865 Indian Head penny. Also pictured is a lock plate from an old black powder rifle or shotgun, and a neat little bottle I dug out of an 1870s privy a couple of days ago for Dr. Sage's and Dr. Pierce's Catarrh Remedy. That privy also gave up an early 1870s Dr. Hostetter's stomach bitters, half a dozen mining assay cupels, and some lesser but very old bottles for around here. It is hard to find early 1870s bottles in Colorado these days, so I feel very fortunate to have the opportunity.

I have even pictured the finds on a mid-quality paper plate like a pro!

My wife likes the term old cermudgen when referring to me. ....looks like you are in a metal detector's dream spot and those are beautiful recoveries. Thumbs up!

 

[plehbah2]

it sounds like an awesome spot!.... here is a clue.... My old dad told me that when they tore out the old wooden sidewalks in his town... the kids looked for coins that had fallen through the cracks in the old days. Maybe you had something similar once upon a time.

I appreciate the heads up, and I think your dad was right about coins under the old sidewalks. I have heard that story from a couple of old timers now, and I also saw a bottle digging video on YouTube where they thought they were underneath where the old boardwalks were, and they were finding coins, marbles, and old bottles. I can only guess where the boardwalks were a lot of the time, but sometimes if I find more than one in the same little area that it must have been where they were.