Big Boys Hobbies

Gold Rush area hunt

Tom_in_CA

Tom_in_CA

Elite Member
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Dec 23, 2013
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Got out with a few buddies, to the gold-rush area of California. There are scores of little burgs, that sprang up, and died out. Endless little tent-city zones that were associated with nearby mines. Some might have a few stores and saloons. Some turned into modern cities, others just fizzled out when the placers petered out. So the miners just picked up, and moved 5 or 10 miles down the road to the next more-promising digs.

We figured out one such little burg, that boasted a few stores and saloons. Got into a sweet little zone, that gave up some nice keepers. Eg.: A few gold rush period coins, Chinese cash coins, lantern parts, gun and knife parts, old doohickies, etc..... Lots of fun !

My coins were : A smunched 1845 seated half dime (someone put it in a vice or something ?). And 2 cash coins. My friends got the better coins, so .... I'll let them chime into the thread to claim their bragging rights !! :hide:

Here's my stuff, in no particular order :
 

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That was a fun of ton, Tom.

Here are my notable finds. If anyone knows what the thing next to the memorial is, I’d be glad to know it.


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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Love how they used to use pieces of coins to pay for stuff. The old piece of 8. Or piece of a rupee if you don’t have a Spanish dollar.
 
Here's some notable finds from the 3rd person "Greg S." Including his 1855 S half.
 

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Here's some notable finds from the 3rd person "Greg S." Including his 1855 S half, and 1811 foreign silver coin.
 
Wow. Sounds like a blast and love seeing the history. Interesting thinking about the men out there seeking their fortunes and dropping the things you found. Very cool.
 
GroundSweeper said:
Ok I have to say I’m a bit jelly of all your back pocket sites and buddies.

Congrats on the cool relics and smushy seated!
Click to expand...

Im not only jealous, but i am also a bit worried that some of his back pocket sites are in our backyards, Jeff!

Damn good hunting Tom.
 
Some of the age indicators from our friend Greg S.
 

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CarsonChris said:
Love how they used to use pieces of coins to pay for stuff. The old piece of 8. Or piece of a rupee if you don’t have a Spanish dollar.
Click to expand...

Chris, thanx for chiming in. Hopefully your ardent research pays off with sites like this. That give up ample signals to choose from.

Yes: A cut coin like that ... even though numismatic-ally killed (I suppose), yet has a fun history to it. You can almost taste and feel how far from civilization and manufacturing they were, that they had to cut coins to make change. So to us, it's every-bit-the-prize to find unique items like this, than it is for any raw value. Ie.: You "can't put a price on history/provenance".

GroundSweeper said:
Ok I have to say I’m a bit jelly of all your back pocket sites and buddies.

Congrats on the cool relics and smushy seated!
Click to expand...

Muskrat said:
Wow. Sounds like a blast and love seeing the history. Interesting thinking about the men out there seeking their fortunes and dropping the things you found. Very cool.
Click to expand...

waltr said:
Wow, some great finds and they beat our corroded east coast large coppers.
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Coinboy said:
That is my dream hunt!
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kingman mikey said:
Wow you found an 1845 Papermate pen. Lol

...
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ugadigger said:
Wowzers that’s a lot of digging!!....
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ground-sweeper, muskrat, walter, coinboy, kingman mikey & usa-digger : Thanx for enjoying our finds with us !


jl1252 said:
Im not only jealous, but i am also a bit worried that some of his back pocket sites are in our backyards, Jeff! ....
Click to expand...

Yes, we invaded your gold rush country part of CA. But not-to-worry. Your 30% "cut" is on the way. Watch your mail box. :realitycheck:

kingman mikey said:
Wow you found an 1845 Papermate pen. Lol

...
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Correct. I'll bet ya didn't know that, eh ? That they had ballpoint papermate pens back then during the gold rush, eh ? We have re-written the history books now ! :laughing:
 
What ! No gold coins ? C'mon Tom, I thought they were in just about every sandbox out there.:laughing: Really now, you guys have some great old sites there. Congrats to you and your buddies on a great outing. The relics are cool and I'd love to know what that strange looking thing is that Greg found. The old silver is beautiful and quite impressive. As we sit around here watching the ground freeze will look forward to more of you leftcoasters posts. Good luck Mark
 
markinswpa said:
.... The relics are cool and I'd love to know what that strange looking thing is that Greg found. The old silver is beautiful and quite impressive. ....
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thanx Mark. And you reminded me that I forgot to ID those here. The silver item, to the right of the thimble, in 2nd pix of post #4, is a : Scabbard frog sheath thing. For a long-knife or bayonet .

And if you'll notice, Greg S actually found the matching bottom tip-end for it ! Not too far apart from each other. Shown in post #7 picture (between the 2 coins, and below the miner's gold ring).

Attached here is an example (poached from google images) of what they would look like.

A great image of swashbuckling past frontiersmen, eh ? :cool3: My 2 friends are going to do some hog-swapping, so that the 2 ends (top and bottom) end up in the same collection. For a very cool show & tell display.
 

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Still just blown away by the rupee. Think how far that had to travel in the 1840’s to get to California. Made by the East India trading company. Did it travel by sail to England then cross the Atlantic to the Eastern US? Once in the States it either made the trip west in a wagon or took the long route down and around the coast of South America and back up to California. That’s one hell of a well traveled piece of history!
 
Lots of nice find! I always like finding the suspender clips for some reason, lots of different kinds out there...….
 
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