🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Please help with Trigger Guard, Blank coin?& button back

[DownEast_Detecting]

these are some more finds from my 1800's abandoned town site. Where i have found civil war military relics the soldier brought home and so much more.
I'm fairly certain #1 is a trigger guard, but from what? Rifle or pistol? could this be a military issue weapon someone brought home to go hunting? or does anyone recognize what weapon it is from? or can point me in the right direction.



#2 i have no idea what it is. The edges feel rough and like reeding on a coin and it's roughly the size of a large cent. its the only reason i mentioned blank coin. I sure thought it was a large cent when i dug it up. but both sides are smooth. there was no lettering, pictures or anything before and after i cleaned it up. I know the chances that it is a planchet or a blank is pretty low. So what the heck is this thing?


#3 Is a small flat button. i think there is enough of the backmark left for someone to recognize it. I'm pretty confident there is a dot then "L &K" and i think i can make out "EL then L or E, dot C" like company. i was thinking maybe scovill but it looks like "E"L not I L. does anybody see anything different? Are the pictures big enough? 4x6 from my cellphone. Thanks so much for taking the time to look..

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[Retired Sarge]

No 1 is a trigger guard, as to what it's from don't know yet.

 

[Red-Coat]

It's tricky reading that backmark but it does look like L & K reading clock-wise with the other part reading anti-clockwise from the dot separator before the L & K.

I'm guessing it might possibly be Leavenworths & Kendrick, although their name is usually in full rather than initialised.

The other part looks like it may be three words with the first short word beginning with 'R' and then what looks like 'DOUBLE GILT'. I would guess 'RICH DOUBLE GILT'.

 

[Retired Sarge]

The key to IDing it will be the location of the tab (Arrow pointing at it) most are closer to the bow.

 

[BuckleBoy]

It's tricky reading that backmark but it does look like L & K reading clock with the other part reading anti-clockwise from the dot separator before the L & K.

I'm guessing it might possibly be Leavenworths & Kendrick, although their name is usually in full rather than initialised.

The other part looks like it may be three words with the first short word beginning with 'R' and then what looks like 'DOUBLE GILT'. I would guess 'RICH DOUBLE GILT'.

Names are often abbreviated on cuff sized buttons. I assume those tick marks are in millimeters. I agree with Leavenworth & Kendrick

 

[l.cutler]

Most likely an early 19th century civilian rifle triggerguard. Probably not going to get any more precise than that. Back then most gunmakers made most of their own parts and there was great variation, even among guns made by the same maker. Not like the mass produced parts of today, where it could be id'd to a certain model.

 

[DownEast_Detecting]

It's tricky reading that backmark but it does look like L & K reading clock-wise with the other part reading anti-clockwise from the dot separator before the L & K.

I'm guessing it might possibly be Leavenworths & Kendrick, although their name is usually in full rather than initialised.

The other part looks like it may be three words with the first short word beginning with 'R' and then what looks like 'DOUBLE GILT'. I would guess 'RICH DOUBLE GILT'.

thanks redcoat. i was pretty sure about the L & K. But after searching this site and googling a bunch i couldn't come up with anything. I thought enough was showing that someone would recognize it, or have dug one of their own.

Names are often abbreviated on cuff sized buttons. I assume those tick marks are in millimeters. I agree with Leavenworth & Kendrick

Those are 16th's of an inch. I thought i had left one picture wide enough to see the scale, but guess not. So the button is half an inch. I'm assuming its a cuff button or something small like that.

Most likely an early 19th century civilian rifle triggerguard. Probably not going to get any more precise than that. Back then most gunmakers made most of their own parts and there was great variation, even among guns made by the same maker. Not like the mass produced parts of today, where it could be id'd to a certain model.

So i wont be able to narrow it down at all? Flintlock, black powder, percussion cap...etc. I have found all those types of ammunition in the area as well as more modern types. i know im missing a little bit of the back part, but it seemed small to me. You definitely think its from a rifle though right? But you also don't think its worth looking at pictures of old rifles trying to find a similar one?

 

[l.cutler]

You almost need the missing parts to be sure of what style it is. My best guess would be a later flintlock or early percussion Pennsylvania style rifle. Early 1800's I'd guess. Sure, you can check pictures for something similar, no way for anything definite though with what you have.

 

[DownEast_Detecting]

Nobody will even take a stab at #2?
What else was perfectly round like that? It was found deep and had a green patina. So I think it is a relic and not modern. Site is an abandoned town from 1810-1930. So most finds have been 1800’s.

 

[Dr Plugs]

As for the possible coin you have, given the dates you believe the site is, I would say there is good possibility it is either a very early, very worn large cent. Or a king george variety brittish copper coin.

The George varieties were very common before we started minting American coins and thereafter for a while. The ones we find here are anywhere from 1714 through I believe 1808? Not many dated after that as our American varieties were being circulated.

Cool finds!

 

[Retired Sarge]

thanks redcoat. i was pretty sure about the L & K. But after searching this site and googling a bunch i couldn't come up with anything. I thought enough was showing that someone would recognize it, or have dug one of their own.

Those are 16th's of an inch. I thought i had left one picture wide enough to see the scale, but guess not. So the button is half an inch. I'm assuming its a cuff button or something small like that.

So i wont be able to narrow it down at all? Flintlock, black powder, percussion cap...etc. I have found all those types of ammunition in the area as well as more modern types. i know im missing a little bit of the back part, but it seemed small to me. You definitely think its from a rifle though right? But you also don't think its worth looking at pictures of old rifles trying to find a similar one?

I probably looked at several hundred trigger guards over the last two days with no match found. Like I said the tab location, and as someone else said the missing parts are key to IDing it. I couldn't find any that had tab that far away from the bow.

Thing is blacksmiths made parts for guns back then for "Local Gunsmiths", even though you could order the pieces, with that the configuration of the trigger guard could be a one off or done by one maker only.

Sort of like today, anybody can make a AR or AK rifle in their workshop. You can buy an 80% receiver, finish it up, and put your name on it as the maker. Blackpowder guns were like that.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Downeast_Detecting said:
> Nobody will even take a stab at #2?

Since you think it may be a copper coin, from the late-Colonial to early-US period, use a digital caliper to precisely measure its diameter (in several directions), then tell us the measurement. Somebody here can use your measurement to check for a really-close matchup in the data on diameters of copper coins from that era. (I only have that data for US coins.)

 

[DownEast_Detecting]

Downeast_Detecting said:
> Nobody will even take a stab at #2?

Since you think it may be a copper coin, from the late-Colonial to early-US period, use a digital caliper to precisely measure its diameter (in several directions), then tell us the measurement. Somebody here can use your measurement to check for a really-close matchup in the data on diameters of copper coins from that era. (I only have that data for US coins.)

ok, i don't have any digital ones but i got an accurate analog one. see following picture.
but they came out to (in inches)......
1.139
1.140
1.136
1.142


i actually didn't think in was a coin, unless it was a blank. just because of how it looks and feels. almost no corrosion and smooth no pitting at all. i wish i had taken a pic when it was straight out of the ground. or you could feel it in your own hands.
here is another coin i dug, that i assumed to be an old copper. it was just so far gone i figured i would never know what it was exactly. but i believe it was a coin. i think you can just make out a few letters still. but it is very corroded and thin.. nothing like number 2. look at the difference in thickness between the two.and it looks like some lettering survived on the thin one. I know everything reacts differently depending on soil, location, etc... i just found it very weird when i dug it and after cleaning it. but if it turns out to be in the range of a known coin i guess ill have to live with that as an id.