DoctorWhy
Full Member
I've lately been using an old hand-drawn map (published 1776) and LIDAR imagery (USGS and NOAA) to locate old Colonial-/Revolutionary War-era homestead cellar holes. The old map was found in the Library of Congress online digital map collection and the USGS and NOAA data were found on-line at their websites. A bit of manipulation is required to make sense of the LIDAR data. There are numerous YouTube videos that show how.
Searching around one of the newly found cellar holes, I came up with three great artifacts -- spanning the 1700's, 1800's and 1900's.
The brass shoe buckle (1700's) gave a powerful signal on the Equinox 800 and came out from about 6" deep. It was in a bent and twisted 'pretzel-shaped' when discovered -- probably the victim of several 'plow hits'. Normally, I would leave such an artifact in its original found condition, but decided to risk straightening it out. With a pair of leather padded parallel jaw pliers I was successful in somewhat flattening it out -- without damaging or breaking it. Doing so, I was rewarded by being able to see the fancy surface features (shown in closeup image)
The next find was a large, thick brass coin with a 'reeded' edge (1800's). The image on the reverse displayed a wreath -- reminiscent of US Large Cents, but the "10 Cent." denomination and an 1827 date puzzled me. The left-facing bust on the obverse was also a mystery. The characters around the image were unreadable. Researching the coin, I discovered that it was a "French Colonial 10 Centime" coin -- most likely used as currency in French Guyana! It's a bit of a mystery how it got to this coastal Maine island!
The third find was a holed brass token (1900's). It is a souvenir "Good Luck" token from the Kendall Oil company handed out at the 1939 New York World's Fair -- probably a 'hunter's drop', given the proliferation of shotgun shells found in wider area.
The site is terribly littered with blow-down and thick brush. I'll be back with a smaller coil (6") rather than the 'stock coil', so I can thread my way among those obstructions -- and hopefully find some more great artifacts.
Searching around one of the newly found cellar holes, I came up with three great artifacts -- spanning the 1700's, 1800's and 1900's.
The brass shoe buckle (1700's) gave a powerful signal on the Equinox 800 and came out from about 6" deep. It was in a bent and twisted 'pretzel-shaped' when discovered -- probably the victim of several 'plow hits'. Normally, I would leave such an artifact in its original found condition, but decided to risk straightening it out. With a pair of leather padded parallel jaw pliers I was successful in somewhat flattening it out -- without damaging or breaking it. Doing so, I was rewarded by being able to see the fancy surface features (shown in closeup image)
The next find was a large, thick brass coin with a 'reeded' edge (1800's). The image on the reverse displayed a wreath -- reminiscent of US Large Cents, but the "10 Cent." denomination and an 1827 date puzzled me. The left-facing bust on the obverse was also a mystery. The characters around the image were unreadable. Researching the coin, I discovered that it was a "French Colonial 10 Centime" coin -- most likely used as currency in French Guyana! It's a bit of a mystery how it got to this coastal Maine island!
The third find was a holed brass token (1900's). It is a souvenir "Good Luck" token from the Kendall Oil company handed out at the 1939 New York World's Fair -- probably a 'hunter's drop', given the proliferation of shotgun shells found in wider area.
The site is terribly littered with blow-down and thick brush. I'll be back with a smaller coil (6") rather than the 'stock coil', so I can thread my way among those obstructions -- and hopefully find some more great artifacts.