Some silver and gold...

Riccar

Been trying out a "new" detector this month and have had some success...
six silver coins, a couple silver rings, and a gold boyscout pin.

Here's a pic from one hunt about a week ago. 1914 George the 5th silver
sixpence, 1923 merc, 1947 Roosevelt, gold boyscout pin, and some wheat-
back cents.

Anyone have any info. on the gold boyscout pin (age, what it was for, etc?)

Happy hunting and Happy Thanksgiving!

lordmarcovan

What is it with you and John, and these silver sixpence? Cool!

If I recall correctly, his was a 1916. Yours being a 1914 makes me wonder if these coins came back home with returning WW1 doughboys.

The only British silver I have dug was a 1940-something shilling. (.500 fine).

WTG!

Riccar

When did John dig his?

I think I read that these are "925" until the 1920's (or some time after that).

lordmarcovan

I need to look back. It was in the last few months. He took the Best Non-US Coin award for the month with it.

lordmarcovan

<< <i>When did John dig his? >>



Wow, found it on my first try.

He dug it in June. There was only one other non-US entry in competition with it, but I still say it was a pretty cool find.



<< <i>I think I read that these are "925" until the 1920's (or some time after that). >>



That's correct. They were sterling (.925 fine) until 1926, when they dropped 'em down to .500 fine. In 1947, they dropped the silver altogether and went copper-nickel. My shilling from the 1940s is .500 fine and only missed the silver cutoff date by a few years.

PS- I don't know the age on the Boy Scout pin, but "Star" is one of the higher ranks in the BSA (two below Eagle, I think... Star-Life-Eagle?). Maybe it's a Star rank badge. Then again, maybe not. It could just be an ornamental star. Gotta do some webcrawling on that one.

lordmarcovan

AHA. I was right- Star Scout is the third-highest rank in the BSA, just below Life Scout, which is in turn below Eagle Scout.

But note this:



<< <i>Historically, Star was actually higher than Life. It was changed when it was decided that the five-pointed star of Star Scout better represented the five merit badges required for Life Scout, and the two were switched. >>



So once upon a time, apparently the Star Scout was the rank just below the top rank of Eagle Scout. Since it is an upper rank, it is not unreasonable to think that gold pins might have been awarded for attaining this level in scouting.

I personally was in Scouts only a bit less than two years, since I joined at 16 and your time expires at age 18. I was one merit badge shy of First Class, which is the rank below Star Scout.

CROCKofCOINS

>>a "new" detector <<

? ? ?

Jerry

lordmarcovan

That almost certainly has to be a Star rank badge specifically, and not just an ornamental star with the BSA logo on it. The other pins seem to just have the logo on them, with no star. No luck in my Googling, aside from that.

HKnJ

WTG...Nice finds.
The stain on the silver is purty bad. Were they found at demo site?

Riccar

LM-
Wow! Thanks for the research! That makes the boyscout pin even more of an interesting
find to me. I had some boyscouts stop by my place a week ago for a food drive but they
were not sure about the details of the pin (got a few guesses from them... and I figure
they wouldn't know for sure since it was actually the younger group/club that's right
before boyscouts = "weeblo's?"). This gold pin was actually several inches deep in the
turf and came out with that nice gold shine that we love to see. A friend of mine that knows
the area guessd that it would've been from the 40's or 50's.

CoC (Jerry)-
I picked up a used Minelab Explorer XS.

HK-
Thanks. It came from the turf in a park. I just haven't bothered cleaning it. For some
reason that silver coin tarnished more than the others. (probably in the ground longer,
maybe rougher soil around it for all those years, who knows) I'll need to give it a bath...
The details are pretty sharp but I guess you can't really see that from the pic I posted.
P.S. If you want to see how "rough" demo coins can be in my area, you should check out some of the
coins on Demodigger's web page! SJTreasureHunters
If you check out his note on the first page, go to the link called "All the good stuff"

goldrush00013

Nice job Rick!

It's kinda weird pulling a six pence out of the ground, isn't it?!
I pulled mine from the woodchips at a local school, obviously some kid had access to dad's collection or the like and lost it.

The Scout pin is a beaut! Cool history as well.

Riccar

Thanks John, your sixpence looks great. The one I found was probably in the ground
for several decades (would've taken your Sov to get down to the depth where this one
was resting )

Musky1011

The Star Rank pin is actually a mother's pin
given to the mother of the scout when attaining the Star Rank

Yours in Scouting
Advisor Jim

lordmarcovan

Thanks, Jim. A mother's pin makes sense. Kinda hard to imagine them givin' a bunch of boys (even high ranking scouts) real gold pins, somehow.

HKnJ

Riccar-

I've been at the site couple times in the past. There are some amazing finds there.

I started a webpage myself but was too busy (sometimes lazy) to keep up.

Nice digs, as always! Thanks for posting.

Riccar

Jim,
Thanks for the info. One of the scouts leaders that stopped by my house mentioned
that it may be a parent's pin... that the scout pins it on his father or mother. Also, to
confirm, is it the 2nd rank before Eagle scout? Thanks again.

HKnJ,
Thanks, and let's see your web page!
I love seeing web sites from fellow detecorists!

lordmarcovan

The current BSA ranks, from lowest to highest, are:

Scout
Tenderfoot
Second Class
First Class
Star
Life
Eagle

So Star would be the third-highest rank, below Life and Eagle.

But note the earlier information I found, which indicated that in the past, Star was once the second-highest rank, just below Eagle.

phut

Cool finds Rick!!
How do you like the Minelab so far?

Zot

Silver sixpence....
Hum!
I've been hunting in places where those actually should pop up, but I've never found one myself.

Very nice finds as always! That gold scout star is a fascinating find as well.