joe dirt_1
Active member
My coin hunting buddy called me sunday about a find made in a small town called Ripley Illinois recently. Seems a homeowner put a new deck on his house and wanted to pour a new sidewalk from the steps to the driveway. There was a tree root in the way of the new sidewalk so he started digging it out. His spade broke through the ground almost half way up the handle into a void in the ground. It seems he went through the bottom of a crockery butter churn in the ground. After more digging he uncovered a cache of crocks and stoneware jugs buried just a few inches below the surface. This small town was a major producer of stoneware in the 1800's with several pottery shops located in this area due to the high quality clay vein that runs through the area. I visited the site today and was amazed at what was being found just a few inches below the surface. They had found 11 intact pieces of stoneware today, including two nice butter churns and several 2 gallon to 6 gallon stoneware jars. With todays digs they have found close to 60 intact pieces of stoneware jugs, jars and bowls and has only dug an area about 5x10 so far. Probing the ground indicates there is much more buried in the surounding area as it was impossible to probe without hitting stoneware and test holes confirmed there is pottery over a large area of the yard. Collectors of stoneware made in this small town are buying his finds and so far 23 pieces sold brought $4,000.00 and he still has 2/3 of his finds. Also during todays dig a 1866 nickel 3 cent piece was found. I wish i knew why all this stoneware was buried in this location. Maybe it was rejects that the pottery shops discarded in a huge pile, but many of the pieces are in perfect shape. I took a few pictures of the stoneware found today and had some huge files so had to crop them a bunch to get them to work here, but you can see what he has been finding. All in all a very nice find and pretty valuable to boot.................roger