silversweeper
New member
Joined the 1700's club today and ended a LONG silver slump at the same time! I was hunting a very large field looking for a church or meeting house site that should have been close to two very old cemeteries on the land I'd recently been granted permission to hunt. About 800 or so acres here and most of it farmed. I spent the last few weeks cleaning up brush and saplings around what was a freed black school close by from soon after the Civil War. I did that mainly to get access to the rest of the land but I also found some old wheaties (1911 thru 1927, one 1914 had me temporarily very excited but it turned out there was no coveted D mint mark!), 3 very nice Indian pennies (1895, 1901 & 1903), and some costume jewerly in the process. Also found one discharged 69 cal 3 ring miniball along the wagon road trace but no camp site as of yet. (Pictured with the 3 ringer is a piece of epaulet and a tag from Economy Laboratories Co of Kansas City, Mo, both found at other sites). Today I went scouting for the old church and about 35 yards West of the graveyard, out in the middle of a hugenorous bean field, I hit a lonely signal which ended up being a small and very thin silver coin. I knew it was bound to be old and was thinking 3 cent piece....and hoping reale but there's just not much opportunity for finding coins that old around here in Southeast Missouri....low and behold that's what it is though, a very worn late 1700's Carolus III 1/2 reale (if anyone can give me any more accuracy on date from the pictures, that would be awesome). Later on I did, I believe, find the old church site on the next hill East of the graveyard. A couple of Colonial era buttons, some discharged pistol balls (have read somewhere that it was common for the gents to discharge/unload their weapons before entering a church), and then the last signal of the day.....just as ominous clouds of rain were moving in and thundering over head...was another coin. This one just a bit larger and heavier. I quickly stuck it in my little pill bottle, filled my hole and treked the nearly 1 mile back to my van. I denied all my yearnings to break the speed limit on the way home and when I finally arrived and cleaned my coins, I discovered a very worn reale and also a 1940 Seated Liberty dime. The dime may very well be another counterfiet but I'm not positive. It has a strage look and feel to it but it does have the silver shine, just under a bit of gray film which could be from the soil and/or results of a burned down building? Will have to test it to be sure. The soil hasn't been kind to the buttons but still nice to find another virgin colonial era site! Can't wait to get back there but it may not be until late next spring. The winter wheat is just starting to come up. HH to all!
HH
