paleomaxx
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- Aug 14, 2016
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What a great hunt! I hiked several miles out to two cellar holes that were on the same ridge. There was a nice variety of finds at each spot, but this one blew me away:
I knew it was a musket side plate when I pulled it out of the ground, but it wasn't until I got back and started to research it that I realized it was from a Brown Bess musket. And then some more research leads me to believe that it's from the long land pattern which was the first iteration of the musket. The plate has the rounded features and the back even has the assembler's marks!
The parts of the musket were specifically finished to fit with each other so they weren't easily interchangeable and the assemblers would mark the components so they could be identified as going together during production. Here's a photo of a long land musket with the side plate visible:
Of course this means that by losing this side piece the owner of the musket lost use of the entire musket unless they could fashion some sort of a replacement. Interestingly almost every relic from this site was 1850's and up while this gun would have been produced in the 18th century. My guess is that this was an heirloom piece even then, since there's no evidence that this site dips back into the early 1800's, much less the 1700's. Here's everything else I found at that spot:
It was a fairly run-of-the-mill home site besides the side plate. I did find one general service cuff button:
And another piece which really surprised me when it popped out of the ground. I thought I was digging after a large cent!
I'm pretty sure it's a bridle rosette based on the marks where the bar broke off, I've just never seen one with a letter set into the glass and it held up so well in the ground that it looks almost modern. Very odd, but no modern contamination at this spot and it was quite deep next to the cellar hole so I guess it's late 1800's.
The other home site is about half a kilometer away and very promising, but was buried by overgrowth so I'll have to revisit it when things have died down a little. Just the small area that was open yielded some great finds though. I found three marked crotal bells!
One is "WB" for William Barton which is pretty commonly found around here. The other appears to be "EN" which isn't on the American nor the British list of bell makers so I don't know who that could be. The last is broken but has an "H." Just one marked bell is uncommon for me so three different ones in one spot is amazing! I also found a handful of buttons including half of a blowhole button!
Definitely an older spot than the other site and a Connecticut copper in nice shape confirms it!
It's in good enough condition that I was able to identify the die variety, it's a 1787 Miller 31.1-gg.1. Not rare, but scarce and any colonial copper that's identifiable makes my day! The one other coin was almost a surface find:
1868 shield nickle in pretty solid shape. I can't wait to get at the rest of this spot and see what else is hiding under the weeds! The first spot is pretty well tapped out, but I suspect that there are a few great finds left here and despite the long hike it's near the top of my list for the spring!
I knew it was a musket side plate when I pulled it out of the ground, but it wasn't until I got back and started to research it that I realized it was from a Brown Bess musket. And then some more research leads me to believe that it's from the long land pattern which was the first iteration of the musket. The plate has the rounded features and the back even has the assembler's marks!
The parts of the musket were specifically finished to fit with each other so they weren't easily interchangeable and the assemblers would mark the components so they could be identified as going together during production. Here's a photo of a long land musket with the side plate visible:
Of course this means that by losing this side piece the owner of the musket lost use of the entire musket unless they could fashion some sort of a replacement. Interestingly almost every relic from this site was 1850's and up while this gun would have been produced in the 18th century. My guess is that this was an heirloom piece even then, since there's no evidence that this site dips back into the early 1800's, much less the 1700's. Here's everything else I found at that spot:
It was a fairly run-of-the-mill home site besides the side plate. I did find one general service cuff button:
And another piece which really surprised me when it popped out of the ground. I thought I was digging after a large cent!
I'm pretty sure it's a bridle rosette based on the marks where the bar broke off, I've just never seen one with a letter set into the glass and it held up so well in the ground that it looks almost modern. Very odd, but no modern contamination at this spot and it was quite deep next to the cellar hole so I guess it's late 1800's.
The other home site is about half a kilometer away and very promising, but was buried by overgrowth so I'll have to revisit it when things have died down a little. Just the small area that was open yielded some great finds though. I found three marked crotal bells!
One is "WB" for William Barton which is pretty commonly found around here. The other appears to be "EN" which isn't on the American nor the British list of bell makers so I don't know who that could be. The last is broken but has an "H." Just one marked bell is uncommon for me so three different ones in one spot is amazing! I also found a handful of buttons including half of a blowhole button!
Definitely an older spot than the other site and a Connecticut copper in nice shape confirms it!
It's in good enough condition that I was able to identify the die variety, it's a 1787 Miller 31.1-gg.1. Not rare, but scarce and any colonial copper that's identifiable makes my day! The one other coin was almost a surface find:
1868 shield nickle in pretty solid shape. I can't wait to get at the rest of this spot and see what else is hiding under the weeds! The first spot is pretty well tapped out, but I suspect that there are a few great finds left here and despite the long hike it's near the top of my list for the spring!
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