Fort Dietrich coin

[SpareSomeChange]

Up at old "Fort Dietrich" in the Blue Mountains which has been heavily detected and heavily polluted. I'll leave you to discuss whether this was a fort or not but it was used as a lookout post in the indian and spanish wars. i found this over 10" deep in a spring-creek. i can hardly make out some symbols on it but nothing definitive. Any ideas?

 

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[Gene Mean]

Nice old find! You've got somebody facing left in the second picture I think.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

I see what Gene is seeing as well, but I think this is more of 'shadow effect' from how the piece has worn being buried in a stream for years.
My first thought was a CW soldier I.D. tag, but it may also be a holed British George II coin.

Dave

 

[joesmarbles]

Kindly rotate the piece so the hole is at three o'clock and photo it, I think the large bit to the right side might be the bottom of the shoulder.....Joe McDonough

 

[DCMatt]

Not a lot to go on...

It looks like the coin has been heavily clipped or skimmed, especially on the left edge. So that will throw off the size measurements.

I thought George II half cent but it seems small and thin for that.

 

[DCMatt]

Kindly rotate the piece so the hole is at three o'clock and photo it, I think the large bit to the right side might be the bottom of the shoulder.....Joe McDonough

And PLEASE don't take the pictures in your hand. Your fingerprints are perfectly focused but the details of the coin are not.

Place the coin on a medium dark, non-reflective surface. Natural light is best but artificial light at a 45 degree angle to the coin may bring out a little more of what's left.

 

[invent4hir]

What kind of metal is it?

 

[SpareSomeChange]

The metal is copper and here are 2 more rotated correctly...i have to have it in my hand to have the light hitting it just at the right way. It's much easier to see details in these pictures than it is in person.

 

[joesmarbles]

Thanks, good luck.....Joe McDonough

 

[jeff of pa]

A bit thin So I say definitely Colonial.
Congrats !

Here is the only Pic of Fort Detrich Snyder I am aware of



& Yes it was a Home Commandeered & Fortified during the French & Indian War.
to Keep a Lookout over Schuylkill County to the North,

==========

& A Supposed pick of the Blue Mountain Hotel nearby.
However I Doubt this One. Due to the Street Sign, & wide Street.
Looks like a City. & Misidentified.



Both taken during an Early Historical, Wagon Tour of Berks, Schuylkill & Lebanon Counties

Actual Hotel Remains





Well

 

[jeff of pa]

Fort at Dietrich Snyder's
​

[The site of this fort was marked by the Berks County Historical Society in 1915.]​

No mention is made of this fort in the old records. It is, however, properly given on the Historical Map of Pennsylvania. In reality it was no fort, but merely a settler’s log house used as a lookout station. It will be recalled that no gap exists in the mountains between Swatara Gap and the Schuylkill Gap. Whilst the enemy generally made use of these natural passages, they also, not infrequently, crossed directly over the mountains, especially when they could take advantage of a roadway leading over them. Such was the case in this instance. Not far distant from the locality of Fort Northkill is a road leading over the mountain to Pottsville, the only one in that vicinity. On this road, at the top of the Blue Mountains, on one of its most conspicuous points, Dietrich Snyder had built for himself a one story log house, about 20 X 40 feet. From this a view of the surrounding country could be had, and the approach of marauding parties of savages, easily discovered by the trail of burning farm houses in their tracks, reported at once to the commander of Fort Northkill which stood but a mile and half, or two miles, below them. Then again this building, properly garrisoned, commanded the road over the mountains. Its advantages were so great that it is hardly likely they would have been overlooked, and we have good reason to presume that soldiers occupied the house. To corroborate this fact, Mr. D.B. Brunner was told, in 1879, by Mr. Jonathan Goodman, of Strausstown, an old gentlemen thoroughly familiar with the place, that a fort was located there. Mr. Henry Brobst, of Rehrersburg, a gentleman 73 years old, also well acquainted with the vicinity informed me that, upon the death of Dietrich Snyder, his wife still remained in the old house. She lived to be 115 years old. Upon her death the property was sold to a Mr. Miller, who tore down the old building and erected a new hotel, now owned by Mr. Harry Nine, which is still standing. [in 1916] The old blockhouse stood a short hundred yards directly north of the hotel. Mr. Brobst was acquainted with Mrs. Snyder and frequently saw the old building. Mr. Jos. Potteiger, of Strausstown, 65 years old, corroborated Mr. Brobst’s statement, and added that the house was boarded inside and not plastered.

 

[DCMatt]

The coin might be a George III farthing. You can just make out the bow on Georges ponytail.