dotd hampton draft
lordmarcovan
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The Butler Plantation, you ask? Why, yes. As a matter of fact, I have. It's up on Hampton Point, at the north end of St. Simons.
I dug RIGHT ON THE RUINS OF THE HOUSE, where there are still foundations. Well, actually, I was digging around what was probably the kitchen and/or a slave cabin. Had permission while they were building a modern house on the lot, in 1998. Some doctor from Atlanta owns the lot.
I found an old brass thimble that would be of the right period to be "Fanny Kemble's Thimble", as I affectionately call it. But chances are, it probably belonged to a slave lady.
Coins? Why, yes. I found coins, too.
The first day I found what remains to this day as the nicest Standing Liberty quarter I've ever dug.
Obviously it isn't a relic of the plantation, but it was a fairly early visitor to the ruins that lost it. That was a nice appetizer, which whetted my appetite for more.
The next day, I found what I thought was a key fob or tool check at the corner of the new foundation, where they'd dug out the footings. I assumed it was related to the new construction until I realized it was not aluminum, but SILVER. As soon as I saw the face of Charles III of Spain I knew the site had fulfilled its promise. It is a 1779 Mexico City 2-reales piece. Aaron Burr was a guest in the house there in 1804, when a terrible hurricane struck. This thing could have come out of his pocket. He lay low at Hampton and some other GA plantations, just after he shot Alexander Hamilton in the infamous duel.
OK, now the adrenaline's flowing, eh? It was for me.
On the next visit, across the road, where some of the old crumbling tabby walls still stand, beneath an overgrowth of vines, I dug two coins from 1782... within about a foot of each other.
The first was my first King George copper halfpenny, but it is not a Britannia- it's a contemporary counterfeit Hibernia! Again, Aaron Burr could have dropped this.
Not but about a foot away from that, I found a 1782-A French colonial 2-sous piece, minted in Paris but intended for circulation in the Colony of Cayenne in South America. These circulated all over the West Indies, and were referred to as "black dogs". I can see why, if the color of this one is any indicator. It has the name of the doomed Louis XVI on it, and three fleur-de-lis with a crown.
Excluding the Standing Liberty quarter, I call these three coins "The Colonial Trio", and though they lack much numismatic value, they are quite historically and archaeologically significant. It is interesting to see the variety that was in circulation in the early 19th century. Any of these could have come from the pocket of Vice President Burr or Pierce Butler or Fanny Kemble. Oh, if they could only talk!
Another interesting historical sidebar: the original sternpost of the USS Constitution was cut from a giant live oak tree near the Butler residence on Hampton Point, or so I have read. The timbers for "Old Ironsides" were in fact Saint Simons Island live oak, cut here and then shipped north. The early US Navy got a lot of their timber here, and timbering and lumber remain a major industry here to this day.
Another find I made at Hampton Point (though a mile or two from the Butler Plantation) was THE coin.
Some of my finest digging has been done in that neck of the woods, literally.
I dug RIGHT ON THE RUINS OF THE HOUSE, where there are still foundations. Well, actually, I was digging around what was probably the kitchen and/or a slave cabin. Had permission while they were building a modern house on the lot, in 1998. Some doctor from Atlanta owns the lot.
I found an old brass thimble that would be of the right period to be "Fanny Kemble's Thimble", as I affectionately call it. But chances are, it probably belonged to a slave lady.
Coins? Why, yes. I found coins, too.
The first day I found what remains to this day as the nicest Standing Liberty quarter I've ever dug.
Obviously it isn't a relic of the plantation, but it was a fairly early visitor to the ruins that lost it. That was a nice appetizer, which whetted my appetite for more.
The next day, I found what I thought was a key fob or tool check at the corner of the new foundation, where they'd dug out the footings. I assumed it was related to the new construction until I realized it was not aluminum, but SILVER. As soon as I saw the face of Charles III of Spain I knew the site had fulfilled its promise. It is a 1779 Mexico City 2-reales piece. Aaron Burr was a guest in the house there in 1804, when a terrible hurricane struck. This thing could have come out of his pocket. He lay low at Hampton and some other GA plantations, just after he shot Alexander Hamilton in the infamous duel.
OK, now the adrenaline's flowing, eh? It was for me.
On the next visit, across the road, where some of the old crumbling tabby walls still stand, beneath an overgrowth of vines, I dug two coins from 1782... within about a foot of each other.
The first was my first King George copper halfpenny, but it is not a Britannia- it's a contemporary counterfeit Hibernia! Again, Aaron Burr could have dropped this.
Not but about a foot away from that, I found a 1782-A French colonial 2-sous piece, minted in Paris but intended for circulation in the Colony of Cayenne in South America. These circulated all over the West Indies, and were referred to as "black dogs". I can see why, if the color of this one is any indicator. It has the name of the doomed Louis XVI on it, and three fleur-de-lis with a crown.
Excluding the Standing Liberty quarter, I call these three coins "The Colonial Trio", and though they lack much numismatic value, they are quite historically and archaeologically significant. It is interesting to see the variety that was in circulation in the early 19th century. Any of these could have come from the pocket of Vice President Burr or Pierce Butler or Fanny Kemble. Oh, if they could only talk!
Another interesting historical sidebar: the original sternpost of the USS Constitution was cut from a giant live oak tree near the Butler residence on Hampton Point, or so I have read. The timbers for "Old Ironsides" were in fact Saint Simons Island live oak, cut here and then shipped north. The early US Navy got a lot of their timber here, and timbering and lumber remain a major industry here to this day.
Another find I made at Hampton Point (though a mile or two from the Butler Plantation) was THE coin.
Some of my finest digging has been done in that neck of the woods, literally.
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