I Had To Take A Few Bullets For What I Got

[CPT_GhostLight]

Dang, F350, more stunning finds, very well done again! That "cutting board" large cent has to be a super rare find and another Reale too! Just incredible hunt, congrats! SInce we haven't got the "WOW!" emoji I requested, so I made my own, so here ya go...

[F350Platinum]

1 minute ago, CPT_GhostLight said:

Dang, F350, more stunning finds, very well done again! That "cutting board" large cent has to be a super rare find and another Reale too! Just incredible hunt, congrats! SInce we haven't got the "WOW!" emoji I requested, I made my own, so here ya go...

 

Thanks Cap'n, took me a while to think of a snappy title. ? I'm always happy to add another half Reale to my collection.

Winter doesn't want to leave here without a final kick or two, it's been great this year though having a lot of 60 degree days since November. Almost forgot what winter was except for the cold snap at Christmas where it got down to 9. ? It's heading back to 60 in a couple days, but it's a race to get detecting in before they plant the fields now. I'm looking forward to spring and summer camping trips, much easier on my feet!

[GB_Amateur]

As usual, a great hunt and even better report.  I like the the 1/2 Real (no surprise there ?).

I don't quite understand why a large cent would be used as a backdrop for cutting coins.  Why not an anvil, for example?  The implication is that they used a knife to cut the coins?  As opposed to a shear....  Admittedly I have no idea how they did things back then, and likely there wasn't a single method but rather 'whatever works'.  The speculation/research/identification is almost as fun as the finding.

Coincidentaly I'm having dinner tonight at the house of a friend of my wife's.  Her husband is a blacksmith and I'll get a tour of his shop.  He's not an historian but he might be able to show me some tools they *could* have used for cutting coins.  Worth an ask.

[Doc Bach]

Very nice finds there 350! Coming from the perspective of a longtime relic and artifact hunter as well as a collector I feel that the partial copper is definitely the star of the show.I would also have to concur that your deduction about its purpose is spot on.There is probably not a whole lot of us out here including myself that would have come to that conclusion so quickly so good call.

[F350Platinum]

2 hours ago, GB_Amateur said:

As usual, a great hunt and even better report.  I like the the 1/2 Real (no surprise there ?).

I don't quite understand why a large cent would be used as a backdrop for cutting coins.  Why not an anvil, for example?  The implication is that they used a knife to cut the coins?  As opposed to a shear....  Admittedly I have no idea how they did things back then, and likely there wasn't a single method but rather 'whatever works'.  The speculation/research/identification is almost as fun as the finding.

Coincidentaly I'm having dinner tonight at the house of a friend of my wife's.  Her husband is a blacksmith and I'll get a tour of his shop.  He's not an historian but he might be able to show me some tools they *could* have used for cutting coins.  Worth an ask.

Thanks GB. I read a long time ago somewhere that they usually used a knife or chisel and some sort of hammering device (not many rocks here so possibly a tool) to cut coins. Reeding coins was a result of unscrupulous activity, shaving bits off and/or cutting them inaccurately. ? An iron or steel anvil is a possibility of course, but you could throw a coin on a log, and probably not bend the coin. ?

Copper being a softer metal probably took it easy on the cutting tool. The varied lengths of the cuts imply a knife blade over a chisel.

I admit it is speculation, but I think a pretty good guess. ?

[F350Platinum]

3 hours ago, Doc Bach said:

Very nice finds there 350! Coming from the perspective of a longtime relic and artifact hunter as well as a collector I feel that the partial copper is definitely the star of the show.I would also have to concur that your deduction about its purpose is spot on.There is probably not a whole lot of us out here including myself that would have come to that conclusion so quickly so good call.

Thanks Doc! ?

The first coins I ever found in this area (about 200 feet from my front doorstep) were cut Spanish Pistareens. The next coin was an 1805 half cent not too far from that. I also picked at least 3 half Reales from that field. It's a field above a landing where all sorts of commerce occurred, but no historical record of it exists, just some names. Researching cut silver is what led me to this conclusion, I could be wrong of course.

This field traded through many hands, I got all my intel on it from the farmer whose family has owned it since the 1940s. They told me of a steamboat captain who lived and was buried there, horse racing, and I worked with a descendant of one of the owners before the farmer who also had a farm here. It's a river peninsula surrounded by water with deep ravines all around, but at least 200+ acres of farm. I'd like to investigate more but the farmer appreciates my discretion, as do many of the other people that have given me permission to search their property. The other issue is that a large portion of recorded history for this county was lost many years ago to fire.

[Lodge Scent]

F350, you get an award for finding two of the gnarliest but very cool coins that I have seen posted in some time. ?

[F350Platinum]

48 minutes ago, Lodge Scent said:

F350, you get an award for finding two of the gnarliest but very cool coins that I have seen posted in some time. ?

Thanks much LC. The half Reale is kind of typical for the area, a couple of which I've found with tooth marks in them, possibly animal but reportedly human ? The Merc took a beating from fertilizer.

It's a shame they destroyed a "Lodge Scent" to cut whatever it was they were cutting. ? Can't help it that name is clever. ?

[Tom_in_CA]

Good play-by-play.  Good pix.