On the board with the first colonial silver of the season

[Bill D. (VA)]

After making a scouting run yesterday afternoon, I stopped for a short hunt at the site we hunted on Monday. It was a gorgeous fall-like afternoon with a nice cool breeze, perfect for digging. I basically roamed around, and if I'd find a keeper I'd slow down in that area for a while before moving on. In spite of this place being pounded over the last 3+ years, there are a surprisingly good number of targets remaining. I was able to dig a few relics here and there including buttons, several early small caliber musketballs, some with a mold seam or sprue, and a leather ornament from the 1600s. I also eyeballed a large bore pipe stem (8/64") which dates to 1620-50. And I also recovered a small but mostly intact colonial hoe. As I was heading back toward the truck, I got one of those tight, upper 50s signals that wasn't hitting too hard, and this is the signature for a cut piece of silver with my F75. I was liking my chances but had trouble locating the target once it was out of the hole. When I finally had it in my hand I could see it wasn't a cut piece, and thought I'd struck out, especially when I saw the smooth back side of whatever it was. But when I flipped it over and cleaned some of the dirt off I was a little surprised to see that it was indeed a very small Spanish cob, or micro-cob as I'm calling it . Although it does count as colonial silver, it's a little embarrassing compared to the monster cob Dan dug at this site 2 days ago. Mine only weighs 0.81g which is probably a 1/10 the weight of Dan's 4 reale cob. And of course, this one doesn't count toward our little coin competition since I was hunting alone .... bummer for me. Regardless, I'm on the board for the new season and hopefully can add to the total soon.

 

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[oxbowbarefoot]

That's awesome Bill. I know Spanish silvers are pretty routine for you, but they are pretty tough up here. I've only got maybe 12 and they're all milled. Cobs a really difficult to find my way, even on my mid-1600's sites. Do you notice a difference in the sites you find you milled reales from the ones where you find your cobs? Or did they trade contemporaneously with each other.

 

[HomeGuardDan]

WTG man...that little fella is a cool. I remember that same feeling with the 1/4 reale that I dug the first year...took me forever to locate that thing. Onward and upward and something tells me saturday will either end in a 1-1 tie or a 2-0...silver will rise again!

ha ha

 

[gwdigger]

Well dang Bill you got me beat. I have one thats .85 grams and thought for sure it would be the smallest ever found. lol

A couple tic tacs.

But it was still a great feeling digging a cob.

Congrats!

 

[Jyverb64]

It was just a matter of time, nice early fall hunt, congrats on the silver

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

That's awesome Bill. I know Spanish silvers are pretty routine for you, but they are pretty tough up here. I've only got maybe 12 and they're all milled. Cobs a really difficult to find my way, even on my mid-1600's sites. Do you notice a difference in the sites you find you milled reales from the ones where you find your cobs? Or did they trade contemporaneously with each other.

Jason - seems like the sites that produce the cut pistareens usually date from the early-to-mid 1700s, and cobs sometimes turn up on these sites too, but rarely whole milled coins. Cobs are probably a little more prevalent at the late 17th century sites, and hammered sixpences and shillings at the very earliest sites (dating to pre-1650). Post-1750 sites also give up an occasional cut piece, but the whole milled coins show up mostly at these later sites. I may not have explained myself very well, but hopefully you got the basics of what I was trying to get across.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Well dang Bill you got me beat. I have one thats .85 grams and thought for sure it would be the smallest ever found. lol

A couple tic tacs.

But it was still a great feeling digging a cob.

Congrats!

Dang Gary - your cob is very unusual in that its extremely small yet quite thick. Looks like its a small chunk off a 4 or 8 reale cob, and I wonder why someone had a need to cut off that small of a piece off such a large coin. Cool find!

 

[pepperj]

Great little piece of silver Bill, also the leather mount is a very nice addition.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

WTG man...that little fella is a cool. I remember that same feeling with the 1/4 reale that I dug the first year...took me forever to locate that thing. Onward and upward and something tells me saturday will either end in a 1-1 tie or a 2-0...silver will rise again!

ha ha

Well, at least you didn't poke fun at it. And good thing our competition is about the number of coins, and not their weight. If so I'd have to dig a half dozen cut pieces just to catch up. And I need to start doing that this weekend before you run away from the competition.

 

[OutdoorAdv]

Great post Bill and congrats on the first colonial silver of the year. That flat dirt field must be awesome to swing on... it doesn't get much better than that! I like the hoe blade too and I bet it cleans up really nice.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Great little piece of silver Bill, also the leather mount is a very nice addition.

I love digging these 17th century leather ornaments and other harness or bit decorations as they are very interesting artifacts, and come in all sizes, shapes and designs. They help to tell a story too as not all of the early settlers could afford horses, so these are predominately found at the larger, more prestigious sites.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Great post Bill and congrats on the first colonial silver of the year. That flat dirt field must be awesome to swing on... it doesn't get much better than that! I like the hoe blade too and I bet it cleans up really nice.

Thanks a bunch Brad. Looks like its time to drag out the electrolysis setup. And once I get it going it'll likely be in continuous operation until next spring. But I guess that's a good thing, right? Good luck when you get back to your site. Can't wait to see what else you pull from there.

 

[46Wheat]

Congratulations on your first colonial silver for the year

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Jason - seems like the sites that produce the cut pistareens usually date from the early-to-mid 1700s, and cobs sometimes turn up on these sites too, but rarely whole milled coins. Cobs are probably a little more prevalent at the late 17th century sites, and hammered sixpences and shillings at the very earliest sites (dating to pre-1650). Post-1750 sites also give up an occasional cut piece, but the whole milled coins show up mostly at these later sites. I may not have explained myself very well, but hopefully you got the basics of what I was trying to get across.

Thank, Bill. That information is valuable and it fits well with the sites by me. The only cob I know of that has come from the CT. River Valley in Mass came from one of the later sites (1680's). I'm sure more have been dug that I'm not aware of. I haven't found any cut Spanish at all, only complete coins. Most are 1/2 reale and 1 reale, with a couple 2 reale milled coins. The only cut coin I have found is the Pine Tree Shilling, and that was from my 1654 site. My hammered Charles I penny came from that site as well. I suppose a cob could come from there as it was continually occupied and utilized since that time.

 

[Carolina Tom]

Well done Bill. I look forward to seeing your finds this season. Best of luck to you!

 

[Vino]

Boy I would love to walk a field like that. Great job on the cob Bill. Still have one on my bucket list. Looking forward to your season.
Thanks for the pic yesterday.
About time I got one from you..lol.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Boy I would love to walk a field like that. Great job on the cob Bill. Still have one on my bucket list. Looking forward to your season.
Thanks for the pic yesterday.
About time I got one from you..lol.

Yeah, really George. Hope there's plenty more to come over the next 6 months.

 

[Steve in PA]

Good job getting on the board with that cob Bill

I hope to get on the board before the year is out

 

[toasted]

Nice cob. My cob dates from the early 18th century as does the town I found it in

 

[Ahab8]

Hey buddy, super excited to see you back into the old stuff. That's a cool little piece of silver. I hope you have a killer season. It's been fun to see my Tnet buddies have so much success. Go get em buddy