My Detecting Trip To Northeast Usa, Part 1 (long)

[GB_Amateur]

A couple years ago a friend of mine (who already had gotten me 5 permissions) asked her sister if I could come detect her 18th Century homestead in NW Massachusetts.  I had hoped to go in 2019 but time got away from me, and you all know what happened in 2020.  Finally we agreed upon a time window and I made it out there in the past couple weeks. 

Basically, after the Revolutionary War, soldiers were rewarded with property in unsettled parts of the previous Colonies and one of them started this homestead in 1785.  The original cabin burned (remnants can still be seen but it was overgrown this trip) and was replaced by a larger house at the beginning of the 19th Century.  The current owners have a lot of property but most is wooded and I had only three full days to detect so I decided to confine my searching to the 2-3 acres of cleared ground surrounding the house.  Except for recently constructed garage (which replaced a barn burned down by an arson), there are no other current buildings, but with the help of a 1911 survey which they showed me we were able to figure out the location (and find the foundations) of a couple other long ago razed outbuildings.

My goal this trip was twofold -- survey as much of this cleared area as possible and try to hone in on the best spots to cherry pick, meaning specifically undisturbed ground.  As is typical, improvements to property occur over time, covering up some of the history.  I wanted to avoid those areas during this short trip.

I began in the front yard close to the house and not surprisingly got some nail hits, although trash wasn't thick.  After digging 3 or 4 good sounding targets that turned out to be nails, I moved closer to the road, below a bulkhead wall.  BTW, I was using the Minelab Equinox 800 in Field 1, 2 tones, wide open (i.e. no notching), recovery speed=5, iron bias F2=0, gain = 22.  About 45 minutes into the first day's hunt I got a good, strong high tone and the dTID showed low 30's (silver quarter/half region).  (I tend not to spend a lot of time requiring perfect, consistent dTID's since I've found so many good targets which don't give them.  But I do listen for iron hints although even those don't necessarily turn me away, especially from weak signals.)

The ground was suprisingly soft and sandy, unlike the stickly clay I deal with at home.  Also, they'd been having quite a bit of rain (the mosquitoes were evidence of that!) so digging conditions were near perfect.  At about 6 inches I pulled out a metal disc the size of a USA Large Cent (size no coincidence because that's what it was)!  First target and I dig a coin I've never found before.  I wasn't sure -- could have been a slug -- and took it inside to rinse it off and carefully blot dry (even that seemingly benign action might have been a mistake) and still couldn't see detail but showed it to one of the owners and she, with better eyes than I, said in the center it said 'One Cent'.  Bingo!  Already I knew it was my oldest coin ever since the last year of minting large cents was 1857 and my oldest previous coin was an 1864 2-Cent piece.

I returned outside to that spot (coins congretate in patches, too ) and a few meters away got a nice high 20's hit, but rather weak.  Eight inches down was a Barber dime.  What a start!  Unfortunately the only old coins I found the remainder of the trip were a few Wheat pennies.  I did get a lot of relics, not surprisingly.  Here's a picture of all but the obvious nails and modern metal trash:

Lower right group are what I consider the best finds and I'll show a closeup of those shortly.  I'm pretty sure everything around and directly below the horseshoe are related to horses ('tack') including the two obscure pieces inside the horseshoe which are similar, one a piece of leather with two large copper rivets and the other just a bare rivet.  Interestingly I found almost identical pieces in June when ghost-towning in NE Nevada.  I guess leather survives in wet climates as well as in dry ones.  Some of the buckles are chrome plated which I assume (but don't really know) means they are fairly recent, meaning 20th Century.  (I apologize for not taking better pictures.  It was the last day and I was in a hurry to get on the road for a long drive to my next stop.  I left all but the old coins with the property owners.)

Here's a picture of what I consider the best finds:

(Again, my photography leaves a lot to be desired....)  I'll show the old coins (upper left) in a better photo.  Lower left are modern coins (clad and Memorial pennies).  Lower right are ladies' items -- stocking clip, powder compact, and lipstick tube cover.  (The woman of the property owners really liked the compact and cleaned it up with some metal cleaner.  It really looked sharp after she did that; too bad it was bent.)  Upper right are four buttons, two of which were flat buttons.  The large one had no identifying marks.  It was made of a copper alloy (brass?).  If anyone can shed light on its possible age I and the owners would really appreciate it.  One of the several mystery pieces I found is the dark looking floral(?) shaped item above with compact.  It had 8 holes arranged symmetrically (two of them don't show up) and was attracted to a magnet).  It was quite thin and reminded me of jewelry.  Above it is a copper broach or pin, possibly previously silver or gold plated.

Now for the old coins:

Four Wheaties (one from each of the 20's, 30's, 40's, and 50's) plus a 1954-D Jeffie (ok, not very old...) with the two best coin finds.  And those two best:

The 1941-S Merc came from a different site which I'll discuss in a separate post ('Part 2').  The 1911 plain (Philadelphia minted) Barber dime is in nice condition although not a scarce issue.  But I'm still happy to get it.  Unfortuantely you can't see detail on the Large Cent in these photos, but I can with a magnifying glass (still no date discerned 😞), and here's what I've found out so far:

On the obverse ('heads' side) the lady is facing right.  That's very important because only USA Large Cents minted between 1793 and 1807 faced right.  So that alone tells me that I didn't find a coin which might be as late as 1857 but rather my 'new' oldest coin find ever is now at least 50 years older than that!  I can see some clothing at the bottom of the bust making it a 'Draped Bust' type.  That narrows its birthdate down to 1796-1807.  There are still a lot of varieties in those 12 years and after trying to figure things out on the PCGS site I broke down and ordered the definitive work on these coins.  It won't arrive until Thursday so you will have to wait along with me to see if I can narrow down further info.  Meanwhile, can you help me identify this unknown find?

It appears to be brass, but is hollow.  The lower left of the picture shows damage, but it's breakage, not corrosive loss.  You can see the seam to the left of the head where it joins the conical part.  It reminds me of a calibrated weight for a scale but the only ones of those I've seen are solid, not hollow.  Anyone??

To summarize the first part of this trip, in 10 1/2 hours of detecting (oh, I didn't mention that most of two of the three days was interferred with by Hurricane Henri!) I found some very promising post Colonial artifacts while just scratching the surface of a small part of this property.  The (very generous, hospitable) owners were sufficiently pleased with what I found that I've been invited back, but I doubt I'll be able to make my return this year.  I'll probably bring a weed eater next time and detect around that original cabin foundation.  I can't wait....

[dogodog]

Great job GB, Thanks also for the story, it paints a great picture. I'm sure the next time out will produce a few more oldies. Sometimes it takes a few trips to nail down the details of an old place.

[Dances With Doves]

Did you go interstate 90 by Syracuse?You could stop off at   the eastern end  of Oneida lake and hunt its nice white sand  beaches where many gold rings have been found in the water.I live  by  Rochester.

[F350Platinum]

Nice diverse haul, GB! Looks like you got a big ol' brass "Dandy" button there. Great draped bust and Barber, I still haven't got one of those. Sorry Henri ate up your time.

The pin looks interesting, any stones? They used a paste of sort to create them early on, and it probably doesn't weather well. Looks like one survived.

I've found lots of buckles that were nickel plated, the chrome plated stuff comes along later.

Don't have specific dates for you off hand. Great stuff. 👍

Could your unknown object be a chair or cane tip?

 

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

The pin looks interesting, any stones?

The female property owner and I disagreed on which side of that broach/pin was the display side.  I'm far from expert on jewelry so I don't know who was right.  Her argument for one side (the concave one) is that it showed hollowed out wells where jewels/stones were captured.  Could it have been a piece of jewelry with both sides viewable, depending upon mood of the wearer?

1 hour ago, F350Platinum said:

Could your unknown object be a chair or cane tip?

Hmmm.  Cane tip idea in particular is tantalizing.  That makes a lot of sense.  Thanks for the suggestion.  I think I said it was copper but actually, brass or bronze are also possibilities.  Bronze would be perfect for a cane (or chair leg) tip.

[GB_Amateur]

1 hour ago, Dances With Doves said:

Did you go interstate 90 by Syracuse?

I took I-80 through most of Pennsylvania and then North, East, North, East to get to NW Mass.  On the way up through Eastern NY I took the Taconic Pkwy but because of Henri's path being close to there, on the way home I went over to Albany and angled SW to Scranton before heading South to DoD country.

[F350Platinum]

The brass Dandy button is mid 1700s to early 1800s. Should appear to have a soldered on shank "alpha" style, if any of it is still there. You have to really clean it to see makers marks if any. If it has a waxy smooth feel when cleaned up it is a Tombac and mostly zinc. That would indicate early to mid 1700s.

These are the kind of things I find in the fields especially right near my house. Love it that you got a shot at the old stuff! I probably skipped a lot of horse shoes out there 😀

[kac]

Could be a draped bust, they are fairly common here in ma as far as large cents go. Later ones seem to be in much better condition.

Looks like you had a blast!

[Valens Legacy]

Nice hunt G_B and I am glad that you had the chance to make it there.

Good luck on your next hunt.

[Tom_in_CA]

GB :  Great play-by-play.  Thanx for bringing us along.

 

A buddy of mine makes periodic trips to colonial states, just like that, for md'ing.   And I love hearing the wrap-up details !