- Mar 30, 2020
- 483
- 3,482
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
No Banners or Honorable Mentions awarded to me on this site, but I have five successful years of metal detecting finds illustrating my area's history as no one else has. Local people who love our rich history will be excited to see them, as excited as I am every time I hit the ground swinging. I show a small sample of favorites here.
I have a bag of mid-1700s Georgian shoe buckle frames, chapes, and tines. But how lucky to find matching shoe and knee buckles in the same area, complete and functioning? Seen here as they came out of the ground. In our village library they have the original ledgers from the village shoemaker during the Revolutionary War Period and the few decades beyond. Now, people can touch some of his products. These books confirm the ledger-based system so vital in the hard cash-strapped colonial economy. Bushels of wheat and corn, fowl, homespun cloth, and other commodities traded for shoes without any cash involved. (The library also has a piece of silk brocade from Capt. Kidd's treasure buried on nearby Gardiner's Island in 1699. Imagine that!)
Well over a 100 colonial-era buttons and cuff links, many crisp. Seeing their size and depth of shank, you can imagine thick wool to fight off cold ocean breezes. My George Washington Inaugural Button did not garner a Banner. I guess so many had been found by the time I found one and knocked them down the desirability list. Pictured here when I found it, fresh out of the ground. Ironically, I used a GW quarter for scale. I did not know what it was. It makes me a member of the GW Club and that is humbling. I used to hold it sometimes while reading the massive 910 page 2010 hardcover biography by Ron Chernow, "George Washington: A Life," winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize.
The red carnelian intaglio was probably not owned by a farming commoner and could have served as a wax seal hanging off of a watch fob. It was an isolated find so I imagine it dropping off of a gentleman on horseback. The silver handcrafted museum-quality horse bridal rosette is complete with backing loop. It very well could have been made by the famous local Southampton silversmith Captain Elias Pelletreau (born in Southampton, 1726). He fled the area to CT (like many Patriots) when a British and Hessian garrison occupied his property for the duration of the war. Up until his passing in 1810, his patrons included Mrs. Elizabeth Beekman and William Butler, General William Floyd (signer of the Declaration of Independence), Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull, and Honorable Ezra L’Hommedieu (delegate to the Continental Congress). I still have the excitement of someday visiting his property and museum to see if I have a match. If it is so, I will award myself a Banner and might be able to buy a new truck with it.
When I first began metal detecting, my goal was to reach back to items from the first English settlement in my area in the mid-1600's. But as I discovered, there were few colonials and they probably didn't have much material to lose. Gaining permissions and acess to properties is a huge challenge, but having archaeological credentials helps. My oldest coin is a 161? Dutch Silver that I found next to a vented back windmill pattern button. I later found another Dutch silver dated 1775. But the English 1600's have so far eluded me. I have found English halfpence dated 1700 and other worn King William HP of that era. I have found 1722 and 1723 KG I HP, also 1723 Woods HP and two pence. King George II are my most commonly found colonial coin, and I have found several counterfeit KGIII. I have a crisp Machin's Mills HP, and a 1760 KGIII hibernia. I'm up to four Spanish silvers: 177?, 1773, 1780, and a slick 1/2 R. I've included my three trimes here: 1851, 52, & 53, because finding the small silvers is tough, as are the early half dimes. I have found several Draped Bust cents. I have sold my finest examples as coins from the first mint hold great sentimental value to collectors and sell for a lot of money. I kept this beautiful 1802 DB bust cent because I found it on my birthday. Plus I imagine it being circulated on the eve of the Jeffersonian Period.
I show a picture with my gun flint and a couple of .75 balls. The one inch iron shot was most likely from the only Revolutionary War skirmish in my area. Patriots crossed the Long Island Sound at night in small boats to attack a garrison in Sag Harbor. It was a very successful raid for them.
The Native Americans put me squarely in the mid-1600s with the copper arrowheads. Three of my four copper arrowheads were recently featured in a book and I gave them to the Southold Indian Museum. Later, I found this fourth one which I will keep. Occasionally i stumble upon stone arrowheads sitting on the surface along with pottery shards. I've also found a wampum producing site where the purple sections of the quahog shells were stockpiled. This info I pass on to NYS Archaeologists.
The hunt continues...
I have a bag of mid-1700s Georgian shoe buckle frames, chapes, and tines. But how lucky to find matching shoe and knee buckles in the same area, complete and functioning? Seen here as they came out of the ground. In our village library they have the original ledgers from the village shoemaker during the Revolutionary War Period and the few decades beyond. Now, people can touch some of his products. These books confirm the ledger-based system so vital in the hard cash-strapped colonial economy. Bushels of wheat and corn, fowl, homespun cloth, and other commodities traded for shoes without any cash involved. (The library also has a piece of silk brocade from Capt. Kidd's treasure buried on nearby Gardiner's Island in 1699. Imagine that!)
Well over a 100 colonial-era buttons and cuff links, many crisp. Seeing their size and depth of shank, you can imagine thick wool to fight off cold ocean breezes. My George Washington Inaugural Button did not garner a Banner. I guess so many had been found by the time I found one and knocked them down the desirability list. Pictured here when I found it, fresh out of the ground. Ironically, I used a GW quarter for scale. I did not know what it was. It makes me a member of the GW Club and that is humbling. I used to hold it sometimes while reading the massive 910 page 2010 hardcover biography by Ron Chernow, "George Washington: A Life," winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize.
The red carnelian intaglio was probably not owned by a farming commoner and could have served as a wax seal hanging off of a watch fob. It was an isolated find so I imagine it dropping off of a gentleman on horseback. The silver handcrafted museum-quality horse bridal rosette is complete with backing loop. It very well could have been made by the famous local Southampton silversmith Captain Elias Pelletreau (born in Southampton, 1726). He fled the area to CT (like many Patriots) when a British and Hessian garrison occupied his property for the duration of the war. Up until his passing in 1810, his patrons included Mrs. Elizabeth Beekman and William Butler, General William Floyd (signer of the Declaration of Independence), Brigadier General Nathaniel Woodhull, and Honorable Ezra L’Hommedieu (delegate to the Continental Congress). I still have the excitement of someday visiting his property and museum to see if I have a match. If it is so, I will award myself a Banner and might be able to buy a new truck with it.
When I first began metal detecting, my goal was to reach back to items from the first English settlement in my area in the mid-1600's. But as I discovered, there were few colonials and they probably didn't have much material to lose. Gaining permissions and acess to properties is a huge challenge, but having archaeological credentials helps. My oldest coin is a 161? Dutch Silver that I found next to a vented back windmill pattern button. I later found another Dutch silver dated 1775. But the English 1600's have so far eluded me. I have found English halfpence dated 1700 and other worn King William HP of that era. I have found 1722 and 1723 KG I HP, also 1723 Woods HP and two pence. King George II are my most commonly found colonial coin, and I have found several counterfeit KGIII. I have a crisp Machin's Mills HP, and a 1760 KGIII hibernia. I'm up to four Spanish silvers: 177?, 1773, 1780, and a slick 1/2 R. I've included my three trimes here: 1851, 52, & 53, because finding the small silvers is tough, as are the early half dimes. I have found several Draped Bust cents. I have sold my finest examples as coins from the first mint hold great sentimental value to collectors and sell for a lot of money. I kept this beautiful 1802 DB bust cent because I found it on my birthday. Plus I imagine it being circulated on the eve of the Jeffersonian Period.
I show a picture with my gun flint and a couple of .75 balls. The one inch iron shot was most likely from the only Revolutionary War skirmish in my area. Patriots crossed the Long Island Sound at night in small boats to attack a garrison in Sag Harbor. It was a very successful raid for them.
The Native Americans put me squarely in the mid-1600s with the copper arrowheads. Three of my four copper arrowheads were recently featured in a book and I gave them to the Southold Indian Museum. Later, I found this fourth one which I will keep. Occasionally i stumble upon stone arrowheads sitting on the surface along with pottery shards. I've also found a wampum producing site where the purple sections of the quahog shells were stockpiled. This info I pass on to NYS Archaeologists.
The hunt continues...
