19 hours at a new home site circa 1816.....Day 1

[Jaichim24]

Ok, getting lazy in my old age, so I'm going to jam several visits to a new site into this one post. I put in almost 20 hours here in some hot hot weather. Lucky for me we've been having rain so I didn't kill the yard. The house dates back to 1816, the owner was selling and said I could detect up until the day before he closed. So I put in the time as much as the wife would let me this whole past month.

What's the terminology when someone stamps over a large cent? Any potential value given it's condition? I can make out ONE CENT on the reverse, but if I squint I think I can see the liberty head on the obverse. Anyone able to make out a date?

The barber dime I can make out the full liberty, the IH has some really nice details and along with the 1914 Buffalo are semi key dates.

Pretty fun first day, I sort of was all over the place testing the yard.

Thanks for looking,

Jai

 

[joecoin]

The LC is called a counterstamp. Very collectible.

 

[DirtFlipper]

What's the terminology when someone stamps over a large cent?

"Counterstamp" (although not specific to large cents)

You might find this info useful:
Counterstamped coins list

HH,
DirtFlipper

 

[Jaichim24]

So second trip out more fun! I had to pick and choose my spots as even though we had rain, it wasn't hard enough to get to the ground around the trees. I had to hunt open space.

The 1900 IH is in awesome shape, probably one of the best I've ever dug.

The skeleton key with the jagged plate with the number 8 on it, my theory is that it was a room key. At the back of the property were 3 foundations, stone with concrete poured on top, circa 1900's. I'm thinking that they were small houses/rooms for migrant workers to use while working the land and this was the room key that they received. Just an educated guess on my part.

I'd love some feedback on the last image which I believe is some sort of mold, I was hoping it was some sort of bullet mold. What do you all think? Any thoughts on what it is? It definately had another part that connected via a pin/hinge to the rounded end. I'm thinking some sort of mold to pour lead. Anyone have a guess?

So, this ground was infested with hot rocks and iron nails, which prevented me from really using high sensitivity. I can honestly say I put hours in on all of my coils, the SEF 12X15, 10X12, 6X8, and the excellerator 4.5X7. Each one found something cool and I was happy I had the options to adapt to my environment.

 

[Jaichim24]

So my last visit was my longest, spent a huge chunk of the day there. I went over more slowly some of the areas I found some good stuff at.

Just on the edge of the dirt driveway I got a nice signal just on the grass and found the 1869 shield nickel which I was happy to see cleaned up enough to get a good date. My friends say that is not very common.

I found the most ornate flat button I've every seen, perhaps victorian? Anyone have a guess or more information, perhaps its age? The more I look at it, the more it blows me away. I'm wondering what the blobs of rusted iron are around it, perhaps something shiny was attached at those locations? I was tempted to do some electrolysis to clean up the blobs and see what is under/inside, but it would totally remove the nice green patina on the button so I'm leaving it alone.

In one of the holes I dug that day I found that hand drilled white mother of pearl button. Really cool.

Lastly, I found the military pins all within 3' of each other. I could also see the old plug that I dug the airforce observer navigator pin from the previous days hunt. One of them still had some black cloth attached to it. I'm thinking some kid got to playing and just left them out. Or perhap a whole uniform was left out to rot? I believe they are from WWII, anyone disagree?

If anyone has an idea what unit badge that shield is, I'd appreciate the help. I found a modern site that listed like 100 unit badges, but this one wasn't listed. It has a hunting horn and a fluer de lis on it.


Well, that's it, was really fun and I'm going to be sad that I can't keep going back. Lucky for me the owner is awesome and has given me the green light to detect on his new property, a 1700's farm house with like 90 acres. I can't wait.

Also, they gave me the green light to detect at a rental unit they own that dates back to the 1800's. I hit it for a couple hours today on the way to a meeting. Since it is being rented out, it was very trashy and I found pretty much only modern clad. I did however find a sweet 1812 Classic Head large cent. So I'll keep you posted on how things go.

Thanks for looking and for the feedback.

 

[Jaichim24]

"Counterstamp" (although not specific to large cents)

You might find this info useful:
Counterstamped coins list

HH,
DirtFlipper

Cool, thanks for the link, though it looks like I have to buy the book to get information on H. KLUGH. I just checked my detecting clubs library and I believe we have a version of this. I'm not sure how up to date it is.

 

[kozyman]

What a array of interesting items. Congrats on a wonderful finds and a lifetime of memories.

 

[James N.D.]

WTG with those finds! You got a lot of cool keepers out of that yard that's for sure. Wish I knew more about them to help out. And that 1900 Injun is in fantastic shape! Anyways, Congrats with 3 days of very successful outings. Can't wait to see what you find next at the other site. Continued Success, Good Luck and HH.

 

[Erik in NJ]

You got some very interesting finds there! It must have been a lot of fun digging all that old stuff up - probably lots more good stuff there too - maybe the new owner will give you permission. I'm fairly certain that some of those cars are Hot Wheels from the 60's - they would have been very collectible had they been in good shape. I'd clean 'em up and save them anyway as they look to be part of the much sought after "Red Lines" series....I used to buy them as a kid.

 

[ragpicker]

I have a toy metal army truck like the one you found in my childhood keepsake collection!.

 

[Jaichim24]

yeah, it was a blast detecting this yard. You can tell that children were active during the 60's there. In fact, I detected another house from 1726, and that owner used to live in this house. She moved out in the 60's with her kids. So both of these houses had a lot from the 60's.