Silver found in VA

[Kingsnake]

I found this little slice of a coin in Alexandria, VA a few years ago while digging through a pile of dirt from a "perc test" hole on a chunk of what WAS wooded property, but is now a small subdivision. Sorry for the low-grade cell phone pics. Will try to get the good camera out soon.

Doug

Kingsnake

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[crazyfish]

You found that in Alexandria? SWEET!!!!I was born in DC, work there, and live in Montgomery County. Every day that I drive on the GW parkway, I only imagine what's lying on each side of the river - the history! What part of Alexandria was it in?

 

[Kingsnake]

This was in the Rose Hill Section of Alexandria....just outside the DC Beltway. Someone had already been through the area at least once with a detector, as evidenced by all of the old brass shotshell bottoms I found on the surface near piles of dug dirt. I have no idea what else he may have found, but I know this little "almost-in-the-trash-bin" hunk of silver was a treasure to me! Not too much there, but I think of the history and it makes me smile.

 

[hamiddetecting]

You are welcome in TNet. Very nice find

 

[NicJohn]

hey thats really cool man. I'm new to this website i've been looking for a find located from somwhere on the east coast, I'm from PA myself. cool to see what kind of things might be in my general area. cant wait to go on my first official hunt this spring. thanks for sharing!

 

[tmyers]

Nice item. I look forward to better pictures so that it can be identified.

 

[jkamericana]

It's a side-cut bit, basically a sliver of a Spanish pistareen of Phillip V, struck ca. 1720. Cool find!

 

[Pistareen]

Dang, I've been away from Treasurenet too long. King Snake that is an awesome find. It is a pistareen of Cuenca, Spain from the 1720s, that found itself in Birmingham, England in 1789 and was cut into three slivers and a center triangle piece melted by the cutter known as a "Birmingham Side-Cut Bitt of Barbados," the Sugar Colony. It is the sixth one I've seen dug in Virginia and would have been dropped in Rose Hill perhaps before Thomas Jefferson was President. They did not circulate long before being demonetized and melted. Think of a sailor having passed through Birmingham to be outfitted for sailing, stopping for a load of sugar for his tea and then for smokes. It might be worth over one hundred dollars to an advanced collector who knew what it is.