could this possibly be an old coin?

davbec

Posted this on the Metal detecting forum also. Still trying to identify it. Has anyone seen anything like it?

Pokermandude

Looks to me like a rock that's been hit multiple times by shovels, ploughs maybe even a pickaxe (that deep triangular hit on the right).

johnny9434

kinda looks like lead to me ( shrugs )

davbec

It is metal. Could be lead. weighs 13.77 gr.

WillieBoyd2

The more I look at it, I see a crowned figure on the reverse.

Sapyx

<< <i>could this possibly be an old coin? >>


No. Nobody made lead coins looking like that, and lead tokens were mostly out of fashion by the time the Lake Superior area was settled.

hayes1601

Have been trying to respond to this thread since friday but have been waiting to get my password (which i, of course, forgot) since then. ANYway, I believe there is a strong chance this is a French Colonial lead cloth seal c. 1700s. I bought one about eight years ago, a piece found in the Detroit River area. Mine was also lead, oblong, and mine had etched in numbers on the back (though yours looked like etched in mystery markings). Also, mine had a tree design on it with a French legend. To my eyes, I think I see what MIGHT be a fleur de lis on the face of your piece but it's hard to say.


I will also respond to this thread on the metal detecting forum

harasha

Yes, now that you mention it, I do see what could be a fleur de lis.

questor54

The most common type of coin used in Atlantis approximately 32,560 years ago.

Nice find.

Andres

17th century lead cloth seal (folded)

Front

back
these are small and thin, and were attached with a pair of pliers.

davbec

<< <i>17th century lead cloth seal (folded)

Front

back
these are small and thin, and were attached with a pair of pliers. >>



Doesn't quite look the same as mine. Mine is about 1/8th inch thick and only one piece.

Andres

Yes I know, your coin ?? is not a cloth lead seal, as member hayes1601 suggested.

lordmarcovan

No. Not a coin. I do think it is a seal, though perhaps not a cloth seal in the conventional sense. It could also have been a weight of some kind for a balance scale? Or a primitive token. They made primitive lead tokens in Europe for a long time. Perhaps the practice carried over to the Great Lakes area where you found that? Those early French settlers used wampum and pelts and playing cards and all kinds of weird stuff for money, right?

It's an intriguing item, for sure. Definitely old, and definitely an artifact. We may never know for sure what it is.

Speaking of lead seals- Andres- you may find this of interest. I dug this while metal detecting in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (near Charleston), on a colonial site. I coincidentally found an identical piece illustrated in Ivor Noel Hume's Artifacts of Colonial America, as I recall. This seal is from the Dutch city of Leyden (Leiden?) and would have been on a bolt of wool cloth imported by the Continental Army during the Revolution. The site where I found it does have some Revolutionary War connections, I believe. What's truly amazing is that it is intact, with both halves. That must be very rare indeed, for lead is a soft metal and I guess the connecting band would usually have been cut rather than pulling the halves apart, as happened here. Furthermore, for it to survive two centuries in the ground without the pieces breaking apart is amazing.

Inscription: WOLLE (...)EKEN / GEMAAKT BINNEN LEYDEN.




I also found an undated, extremely slick 1770s Mexico City half-real (made into a very crude love token with "SD" carved on it), and an early US military "eagle" button (ca. 1820s). Michael ("Aethelred") found a US large cent from the 1830s. He was living there at the time.

Dave- congratulations on a cool find, even if you never end up knowing what it is.

I had a "whatzit" of my own, but in copper. Turns out to have been a one-dram apothecary weight, as I'd suspected.



(Trackback: DOTD 2006-07-01).

The "whatzits" are tantalizing. They make metal detecting frustrating and fun at the same time. Most of you will remember my most famous whatzit.

davbec

Thanks for the input LordM. Your right. Finding an old piece and not knowing what it is can be tough. But it is
what keeps you wanting to hunt for more.
thanks
Dave

Andres

nice find Marco

it says: wolle deeken gemaakt binnen Leyden = woolen blanket made within the city of Leiden (town where I live, between Amsterdam & the Hague)
heres the other side:



these lead seals are still in use today, amongst others by our electric company to secure the electric meter and also for the gasmeter.

I found this lead seal in the Egypt Museum in Caïro:


other side: