October 11, 2014: Lotsa pairs: 2 Seated Dimes, 2 IHCs, 2 V Nickels, 2 Lead Seals, and well... 5 butt

pcgs69

It's been a while since I've had a full day with nothing planned. It was time to get back to some serious metal detecting. Was out and detecting by 8:30am. Second signal was an IHC! Then it was slow for a while at the first place, but there were some flat buttons mixed in. Also got a couple of crotal bell fragments. Sure wish a whole one would come some time. An old full crotal bell is on the top 10 want list.

Around 12:30 it was time to check out the second spot. About 20 minutes in a nice solid signal came up. A dark grey edge peeked through the dirt. Please be old... turned out to be an 1884 Seated dime! First seated since Sept 17, 2013.

Decided to grid that area and about 15 minutes later, a second seated dime popped out! This one is quite worn, and the reverse got a couple of small scratches on it. Checked the date and it was 1876. After getting it home, there's CC on the back! My first Carson City coin!! Half tempted to take some polish to it to bring out some details. It might be the lesser of two evils right now and better than a dark, worn blob. What do you guys think?

The scratches look way worse in the pic.

Also ended with 2 IHCs - 1893, and 188?
2 V nickels - 1899 and 1900
2 Lead Seals
2 pieces of an old crotal bell - any estimate on age?

Not as good as Demo's two seated quarters, but they'll have to do!

With these 2 IHCs, that makes 43 for the year. 1 more will tie the record, and 2 more will beat it. Got my fingers crossed.





Can't really see the CC...but those scratches stand out

pocketpiececommems

Nice finds. You and demodigger are rreally into the Seated coins.

ricko

Very impressive...Cheers, RickO

mariner67

Interesting finds and fun to read as always!
Thanks!

lordmarcovan

Y'all are killin' me, with these multiple Seated silver days.

WTG!

luckybucks

Hopefully you haven't polished that seated yet.

To get the black off, try soaking it in Dawn dish detergent. It looks like you have a couple of very nice silvers.

It looks like someone had a pocket spill circa 1900 to 1905ish. Hopefully you get a full crotal on your next hunt.

demodigger

I like the color of those dimes. I wouldn't do anything to them. I've only dug one cc coin and that was back in 1989 I think.

pcgs69

Haven't polished it yet. Will try the soap approach first. Got nothing to lose. Suppose no real harm keeping it as is either. Can always decide to do so later on. Been falling behind on things and still need to log the last few hunts in Excel.

lordmarcovan

Do you have an electrolysis rig? That can often be a good nonmechanical means of cleaning dug silver. There are instructions out there on how to make your own. I used to have one. It worked well and I cleaned my first dug Spanish colonial silver with it, to good effect.

Not so good on my first large cent, though. (A crusty Draped Bust cent.) I burnt that up. I wouldn't use electrolysis on anything especially porous, because you can cause the entire surface to come off. But for more stable stuff (and silver almost always is), it works fine.

A simpler and similar method to electrolysis (though not quite as effective, in my experience) is the hot peroxide treatment. Zap some hydrogen peroxide solution in the microwave until it's near boiling, then plop your artifact in there.

Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, just like the old Alka-Seltzer commercials said. Rub off loosened grime and repeat as necessary.

Your crotal bell looks similar to some my group was finding in England. I'd guess 18th century, since that seemed to be the newer date range they attributed them to there, and the earlier date range on most sites in this country.

I dug a partial one myself, in England. A full crotal bell is not on my Top Ten list, but I'd have loved to get an intact one. I enjoyed finding the partial one, as it is. One guy dug a beautiful intact one that still had the little "pea" inside. In other words, a fully functional bell, once the packed dirt was removed from it and it was cleaned.

I love the old lead bale seals, too.

And congrats on the CC silver!

pcgs69

Lordm...just saw your post! I've never tried electrolysis but hear it can do wonders. I have tried warm hp with mixed results. I'm kind of scared to try it on these new england large coppers. Tried using it with the flying eagle cent from this weekend snd it worked reasonably well. A couple of years ago I tried it with a Massachusetts cent and stopped it short for fear of making it worse.

Did you take any pics of your crotal bell fragments?

lordmarcovan

<< <i>Did you take any pics of your crotal bell fragments? >>

No, but the club leader guy who did my export application did.



<< <i>

1. 1641-3 Charles 1st hammered silver penny - mintmark 2 dots
2. 1300-1310 Edward Ist hammered silver penny - Closed E, outcurving h- Cross pattee - Crown 1 - Type 10 cf3 Obv +EDWAR ANGL DNS hYB Rev CIVI/TAS/LON/DON - London mint
3. Medieval trade weight
4.18thC clog fastener
5. 1500-1700 mount
6. 4 lead musket balls/shot
7. Post medieval lead bale seal
8. Post medieval lead alnage cloth seal
9. Post medieval harness ring
10. 18thC crotal bell
11. WWII AA flack shell fragment
12. 8 clay pipe stems
18. 19thC Rim fire cartridge cap
19. Georgian mount
20. Georgian draw pull back plate >>




Your fragment is much more interesting. Is that a letter "I" on it? It definitely looks 18th century to me. (Meaning the "I" could also be a stand-in for a "J", as those letters were interchangeable in those days.)

You should definitely build an electrolysis rig. It should work well on silver, but you're right to be cautious about using it on dug coppers. I accidentally "burnt up" my first large cent- a Draped Bust- with electrolysis. But it did my first Spanish silvers very well- better than any harsher cleaning methods would have. And now, years later, they have retoned beautifully.