# Busted!



## cobaltbot (Jan 18, 2010)

Took advantage of the fact that the ground around here is saturated from a year of incredible precip and since I had the day off I did a little detecting at Stonetown.  This was a small village from the early 1800's to about 1890 but all that remains today are corn and soybean fields and the buried slate community well I've posted about before.  I have found several flat buttons, three large cents, a 2 cent piece and some indian heads here in the past but today I found my first (from there) silver coin and my earliest to date.  I had just started and found half a horseshoe and in the very next hole I saw a silver edge which is usually a good sign!


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## cobaltbot (Jan 18, 2010)

The reverse, pretty good overall shape except a plow scratch.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 18, 2010)

Here's the hole with the coin on my shovel.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 18, 2010)

It was a beautiful day around 50 degrees, there was 2-3 inches of mud, about 1 inch still frozen under that, then dirt.  The church is the only thing nearby.  I've written about this place before:

 https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/m-77476/mpage-1/key-stonetown/tm.htm#77476


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## cobaltbot (Jan 18, 2010)

Besides the 1820 capped bust dime (hence busted - sorry about that!) one other thing I found was a large utensil handle that's maybe pewter?  Its corroded but has a crown with VT or VJ under that and in little stamps the letters O HN YA TE S like it might have said John Yates?  If anyone has any thoughts on this I'd appreciate hearing them.  My first decent finds of 2010.


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## bottle_head9 (Jan 18, 2010)

Awsome!![]


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## JOETHECROW (Jan 18, 2010)

Well,...I don't know a whole lot about coins, but I know that's a really cool 'keeper'!,...Nice find.                                         Joe


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## Jim (Jan 18, 2010)

Nice Bust dime, Steve! The early Capped Bust and Draped Bust series are some of my favorite U.S. coin designs. ~Jim


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## beendiggin (Jan 19, 2010)

Your fragment is from a "fiddle back" type utensil.   It was an amalgam of silver (mostly)  and other metals.  I'm not sure where your piece was made, but if it was american, it could be termed "coin silver" as coins were used and melted down to make utensils , etc. There are thousands of different silversmiths , and sometimes tracing a piece can be pretty hard.  You have some easy to read hallmarks, so you may have some luck with finding out where and when it was made.  Nice finds, the coin is great.  BTW, what are you using for a detector?


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## CanYaDigIt (Jan 19, 2010)

Nice find for sure.  That's a pretty darn desirable coin, and in really nice shape.  Congrats.


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## RedGinger (Jan 19, 2010)

Nice!  I'd love to find a coin like that.  I have a place near Loch Raven you could detect if you're interested.  I dug there and there is definitley old stuff, but I didn't have a detector.  It's the site of an old Livery according to Sanborn, which doesn't have much info about that area or the area beyond it.  I guess that's because it's in the country.  I'd love to see some more info about the town of Warren or a map of it.

 Sorry to get off track with your thread, but your coin just reminded me of a good detecting spot you might enjoy.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 19, 2010)

Thanks all for the replies!  I wish I could find something Welsh there as the community was for early slate quarry workers.  Here's the other coins and flat buttons I've found there, minus a few.  I'd like to make a shadow box and put these in it with a picture of the well we discovered.  There's no known picture of the community....YET!  Like I said it was dismantled in the 1890's.

 Paul its a Whites XLT, ok but sometimes flaky like its operator!  Your post prompted me to do some more web searching and I came up with a John Yates, a prolific pewter spoon maker in Birmingham, England who later got into the Silversmith business as John Yates & Sons.  Still not sure what the VT stands for?

 Laur, I would like to hear about the Loch Raven place, all leads are potential finds!


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## madman (Jan 19, 2010)

hey steve great finds! i need to get one of those metal detecting  thangs,,,,,,,..............


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## RedGinger (Jan 20, 2010)

Steve, I sent you a PM with more info.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 20, 2010)

Thanks Laur, you're the Bee's knees!!!


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## cobaltbot (Jan 24, 2010)

I did a little more detecting this weekend and this has turned into a little archeology project.  In the area near where I found the dime I think I have found the area where the Stonetown stone "apartment" building was.  I am finding what you typically find around here when an old house burns down - that is slate shingles, plaster under that, burnt wood, nails and small artifacts.  Because of many years of being plowed over I doubt I will find any whole bottles unless I can find a trash pit or privy that survived below the plow line.  What I am finding are tons of pieces that will help tell the story of Stonetown's existence.  I am finding window glass less than a sixteenth of an inch thick.  I think the aqua piece is part of a historic flask.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 24, 2010)

I am finding bone and flat buttons.  I wonder if the little clear dish was a salt?  There is also the rim of a glass or wine glass that has cut decorations in it.  Although not much is whole this is still a lot of fun because of what these things can tell me about this place.  If anyone can put a date on any of the shards, please help.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 24, 2010)

Here is a shard of a flat oval stoneware bottle debossed POWELL that I found there last year.


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## JOETHECROW (Jan 24, 2010)

Way cool artifacts!...Could the oval Powell stoneware be English?

                                                                                         Joe


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## cobaltbot (Jan 24, 2010)

I don't know Joe but it does seem to be a form they used more than us.  I'm also not sure about this, but it seems the Welsh were "forced" to buy all their plates, utensils, etc from England.  That's why I was thrilled a few years ago to find this tea pot lid with people in Welsh dress even though they probably still had to buy the tea pot from England.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 24, 2010)

Another mystery I'd like to find the answer to is the meaning of the stein?  The Welsh were not supposed to be drinkers but I know many of our hard working quarry folks were known to toss down a few!


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## JOETHECROW (Jan 24, 2010)

Is that two seperate lids?....or the reverse of the teapot? The capital "E" on the top.....Could that stand for England? OOPS....nevermind I can see it's the reverse....Not sure about the beer stein though,....kind of an odd transfer, unless it was the lid to a stein?                                                                               Joe


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## cobaltbot (Jan 24, 2010)

Its the same lid, it appears they cut the stencil in half?  The E stands for Ellis, the last name of the family that was listed on an 1876 map as living at the foundation I was digging!  I dug a civil war belt buckle at this foundation and found in a local history book a Griffith G. Ellis listed as one of the locals known to have fought in the civil war.  They also have a picture of him in an 1870's town band.  The family were known to be quarry workers.  I believe his mom brought this tea pot over on the ship when they came to Delta in the 1840's. I'm pretty sure its a tea pot lid because there is a small hole put there in the making to let the steam escape.


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## JOETHECROW (Jan 24, 2010)

Very cool info!...It sounds as though you carefully researched all this....Good job,....How cool that you found the civil war belt buckle that corresponded with the information about the Ellis family...and now that you mention it, I did notice the steam vent hole on the lid.....Teapot with beer stein graphic,....How bizzare.........
                                                                                       Joe


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## bostaurus (Jan 25, 2010)

Could the VT be whats left of VR?  The crown is the shape of the Victoria crown and usually would have had VR  under it.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 25, 2010)

Melinda, looking at the spoon handle again I believe you are right it is a VR which I guess means the spoon was produced during the reign of Queen Victoria.  I found one exactly like it at this website:

http://www.pewterbank.com/James_Yates_-_revised_article.pdf

 Thanks!


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## Dugout (Jan 28, 2010)

Show us a picture of your half horseshoe, because it could be an ox shoe.  Please!


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## cobaltbot (Jan 28, 2010)

I'll find it and put it up, dug another half today, good luck sign for me!


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## redbeardrelics (Jan 29, 2010)

Awesome finds Steve, I would love to dig some silver like that ! I bet you can also find some Indian artifacts there after the spring plowing. Good luck, and keep it up.


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## cobaltbot (Jan 29, 2010)

Thanks Chris and thanks for the great artifact hunting tips!  I have been looking in this field while detecting.  Only problem is that these fields were converted to no-till years ago.  I'm thinking of seeing if he will let me plow up a little just to improve the detecting finds!


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