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2 sites today and my first Indian Head and a mystery coin? (Warn: Pic heavy)

Everetteb

Junior Member
Joined
Aug 15, 2010
Messages
98
Location
San Diego
I was robbed today by a ground squirrel. Hunting an old school house location yielded me my first Indian Head, a 1904, found sitting on the top of the soil while retrieving my Lesche shovel to dig another ring (pull tab type, one of many.) I missed the thrill of the dig , and missed the 1800 club by 5 years. I'll be back.... Got a 1961 D memorial, a melted piece of lead (probably from a burned tree in a past fire) a piece of iron and twisted up, maybe, handle of a sort, a hinge (pair to a former search find added into the pic) and more nails, square and a couple of round.
J.School_Finds-a_8-19-16.jpg
J.School_Cents_8-19-16.jpg
IH_Cent_1904_backside.jpg
IH_Cent_1904_frontside.jpg

Moved on to the next site, started as an early settler adobe hut, turned stage coach stop/trading post, then hotel visited by the rich and famous for the local area. There was some fresh digging to install lines so freshly dug mounds of dirt, couple of feet high, to scan over.

First find was a white marble exposed on the dirt mound halfway up, easy pickins.
WitchCrk_Marble_8-19-16.jpg

Later, a piece of dug up cast iron 4" pipe looks to be the source of a mystery coin(?), too cruded over, but an exposed edge looks promising... Fingers crossed.
WitchCrk_UnkCoin_a_8-19-16.jpg
WitchCrk_UnkCoin_b_8-19-16.jpg
WitchCrk_UnkCoin_c_8-19-16.jpg
WitchCrk_UnkCoin_d_8-19-16.jpg

Next finds were a piece of pre-punched sheet metal for ??, maybe someone will recognize it.
WitchCrk_Finds-a_8-19-16.jpg

A 44 Mag WCF casing with a larger than normal center firing pin punch mark, anyone know these?
WitchCrk_44Mag_WCF_Baseview_8-19-16.jpg
WitchCrk_44Mag_WCF_Sideview_8-19-16.jpg

A corroded out casing of another round.
A bullet that has a large cavity.
WitchCrk_Bullet_a_8-19-16.jpg
WitchCrk_Bullet_b_8-19-16.jpg

And now I'm off - will try some curbside hunting later for silver of sorts. HH all! Need a new hat with a drape across the neck for the next outing too!
 
I like the pic heavy! Thanks for sharing and congrats! The mystery coin looks like the many zincolns I have found, but its too big. Perhaps a token?
 
Nice variety of finds! Post the results of the clean up, I hope it's a nice keeper!

Thanks, I will.
I'll try the olive oil method and see how well it works. Never tried it before. I need to weigh it in first before adding the oil, charging the scale now.
 
Your first Indian!!.....thats always exciting! I know I have my first indian somewhere I
just wish I would have wrapped it and labeled it in one of those little cardboard
coin holder things. Congrats :)


.
 
Thanks, I will.
I'll try the olive oil method and see how well it works. Never tried it before. I need to weigh it in first before adding the oil, charging the scale now.

Soaked a day in the oil and then took a toothbrush at it at a 45 deg angle and let the bristles flake away at the crust. A lot came off, so I cleaned it with soap and water and let it soak in 3% peroxide with periodic scrubbing and changes of solution. I found the tapping it with the backside of the plastic toothbrush would break free a lot of the remaining crust/rust to a certain degree. Today I brought it to work and picked at it under the microscope and tried to get some pics.

Looks as if the mystery coin is a Victoria D.G 1/3rd farthing, year may not be discoverable though, reverse side looks to be toast, but these were from (1866-1885). I can make out what is "TORIA D G" or what I was thinking before as "PORTA D G" and the outline of a bust facing left, also what looks like "III" could be the "ITT" in "BRITT"
Farthing IDed.jpg

Sorry, but I couldn't do better with the lighting and angle, it was hard enough to hold the phone properly above the eyepiece.

It'll go back into the peroxide for a while now.
 
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Soaked a day in the oil and then took a toothbrush at it at a 45 deg angle and let the bristles flake away at the crust. A lot came off, so I cleaned it with soap and water and let it soak in 3% peroxide with periodic scrubbing and changes of solution. I found the tapping it with the backside of the plastic toothbrush would break free a lot of the remaining crust/rust to a certain degree. Today I brought it to work and picked at it under the microscope and tried to get some pics.

Looks as if the mystery coin is a Victoria D.G 1/3rd farthing, year may not be discoverable though, reverse side looks to be toast, but these were from (1866-1885). I can make out what is "TORIA D G" or what I was thinking before as "PORTA D G" and the outline of a bust facing left, also what looks like "III" could be the "ITT" in "BRITT"
View attachment 359597

Sorry, but I couldn't do better with the lighting and angle, it was hard enough to hold the phone properly above the eyepiece.

It'll go back into the peroxide for a while now.

Co-worker pointed this version out:
ha90.jpg

Now I'm back to the mystery, albeit much more narrowed... I'm tending to go with the latter since I can make out an upper dot of the colon between the D & G - of D: G:
 
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