Almy
Bronze Member
GR cartridge pouch plate and other finds from an post-revolutionary Soldier's farn
I got a good signal and dug up a broken piece of brass with a crown on it. It looked to be a little less than half of the original piece. When I showed it to my metal detecting friend a few days after finding it, he got excited: "That's part of a British Revolutionary war cartridge pouch plate! I've been wanting to find one of those for years! I only know of one other found around here. It was in better shape and the fellow who found it sold it for a few thousand dollars."
I had been passing the site where I found it for years. It was near a dirt road and close to a river. The land was flat and alluvial with gentle dips and rises. The site looked promising to me years ago, and I tried it a few times without success. But one day last year I noticed a few pottery shards there and that sparked my interest, so I expanded my detecting area. A gentle rise of perhaps 2 feet, over about a half acre, turned out to be a hot spot. I began finding military buttons and 18th century coins. I hunted it many times but then one day early this summer I expanded the search area a little. Just beyond the mound and near the road I got a strong signal and dug up the first piece of the plate. When my friend told me what it was and how unusual a find it was, I decided to go back and see whether I could find the other part. It was a few days before I could go back. I got a strong signal about 20 feet from where I had found the first part. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was the missing piece with the "GR" on it! I washed the soil off and mounted the two pieces on a circle of copper using hot melt adhesive. It now makes a beautiful display piece and is augment by the buttons and coins found in proximity. My limited research indicates that it is a British Guard's plate. Some in Canada had "Butler's Rangers" inscribed on them but this one is plain.
Ever since I found this, my local relic hunting friends have been kidding me about this plate, offering to trade for a coin or saying that a relative rookie using a simple tone detector should not be finding such things.
So far I have only been able to find a few slight mentions of persons living in the general area of the finds, but no records of the specific sites that I and my friends have found in a rather small area that could perhaps be called a settlement. Exciting stuff!
Some of the relics I have found on this site include:
George II halfpennies - 1752, 174?, 173? and several with dates indistinguishable
King Phillip reale - 1736
Military buttons - Royal Provincials (one with date 1744), RP with crown, 3-cannon artillery, New Brunswick Provincials, 23rd American, 52nd regiment, woman leaning on anchor
Gun balls - .69 musket, .56, .49 and several others
Civilian buttons - many assorted including dandy, pewter and behive-shaped
The artifacts suggest a date for the site just after the Revolutionary war. The site is about 10 km from a long-occupied British military post with no land road. All travel would have been by water. The site is in a Loyalist grant region and apparently was a settler's home and farm. I found lead net weights at the site suggesting they fished the nearby river. But the number and variety of military artifacts seems large for just one former soldier settler's family. And if there were visitors from the military post, why would they leave so many artifacts there?
I got a good signal and dug up a broken piece of brass with a crown on it. It looked to be a little less than half of the original piece. When I showed it to my metal detecting friend a few days after finding it, he got excited: "That's part of a British Revolutionary war cartridge pouch plate! I've been wanting to find one of those for years! I only know of one other found around here. It was in better shape and the fellow who found it sold it for a few thousand dollars."
I had been passing the site where I found it for years. It was near a dirt road and close to a river. The land was flat and alluvial with gentle dips and rises. The site looked promising to me years ago, and I tried it a few times without success. But one day last year I noticed a few pottery shards there and that sparked my interest, so I expanded my detecting area. A gentle rise of perhaps 2 feet, over about a half acre, turned out to be a hot spot. I began finding military buttons and 18th century coins. I hunted it many times but then one day early this summer I expanded the search area a little. Just beyond the mound and near the road I got a strong signal and dug up the first piece of the plate. When my friend told me what it was and how unusual a find it was, I decided to go back and see whether I could find the other part. It was a few days before I could go back. I got a strong signal about 20 feet from where I had found the first part. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was the missing piece with the "GR" on it! I washed the soil off and mounted the two pieces on a circle of copper using hot melt adhesive. It now makes a beautiful display piece and is augment by the buttons and coins found in proximity. My limited research indicates that it is a British Guard's plate. Some in Canada had "Butler's Rangers" inscribed on them but this one is plain.
Ever since I found this, my local relic hunting friends have been kidding me about this plate, offering to trade for a coin or saying that a relative rookie using a simple tone detector should not be finding such things.
So far I have only been able to find a few slight mentions of persons living in the general area of the finds, but no records of the specific sites that I and my friends have found in a rather small area that could perhaps be called a settlement. Exciting stuff!
Some of the relics I have found on this site include:
George II halfpennies - 1752, 174?, 173? and several with dates indistinguishable
King Phillip reale - 1736
Military buttons - Royal Provincials (one with date 1744), RP with crown, 3-cannon artillery, New Brunswick Provincials, 23rd American, 52nd regiment, woman leaning on anchor
Gun balls - .69 musket, .56, .49 and several others
Civilian buttons - many assorted including dandy, pewter and behive-shaped
The artifacts suggest a date for the site just after the Revolutionary war. The site is about 10 km from a long-occupied British military post with no land road. All travel would have been by water. The site is in a Loyalist grant region and apparently was a settler's home and farm. I found lead net weights at the site suggesting they fished the nearby river. But the number and variety of military artifacts seems large for just one former soldier settler's family. And if there were visitors from the military post, why would they leave so many artifacts there?
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