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My silver dollar turned out to be a pocket watch.

Dan B.

Elite Member
Joined
Oct 12, 2016
Messages
1,812
Location
NW Ohio
I was out metal detecting today and had a signal that was solid and had a high vdi. When I first pop the item out of the ground I did not have my glasses on so to me it look like a silver dollar. I was really excited pick the item up and realized it was a pocket watch.

I know nothing about pocket watches cannot find any serial numbers on it. I did a little electrolysis to clean the innards up a little bit to try to find a number.

On the inside of the back cover this is what I found FAHY coin no.1 n143o . Not sure but it cleaned up nice does this mean that it is silver.
 

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Pocket watches are such cool finds. That one is from Wallingford Watch Company. I would guess the "COIN" stamp means coin silver, which would be 90%; part of the reason you thought it was a coin. Very cool!
 
Pocket watches are such cool finds. That one is from Wallingford Watch Company. I would guess the "COIN" stamp means coin silver, which would be 90%; part of the reason you thought it was a coin. Very cool!

From what I can tell there should be two more pieces out there somewhere. The ring that held the glass on the face of the watch and the cover. It will be like finding a needle in a haystack.
 
Being a collector of clocks and watches, I agree that it’s a 90% silver case. They called it “One nine fine”. The cases were made from melting down old worn out silver coins and repurposing them as a case for watches, silverware, jewelry etc.

The company that “made” your watch typically used imported Swiss movements and stuffed them into cases that were made by various watch case manufacturers.

There are a lot of missing pieces to your watch but it’s an awesome find!! Prior to 1871 many watches were imported to the US and they used “American” sounding names such as Wallingford, Philadelphia and Bristol in attempt to fool the public into thinking it was made here. A lot of them came from England with Swiss movements which in their own right kept as good if not better time than their American counterparts. After 1871 however, they had to be stamped with the country that they came from, thanks to a law that was passed.

The case itself was made by the Fahys Watch Case Company founded by Joeseph Fahys in 1857. They were in business until 1931. Unfortunately serial numbers on the case aren’t very traceable as far as age goes. The movements are much easier to track but only in American watch making and not all of them were recorded.

I hope that little bit of information helped.

Eric
 
Dan B. awesome find. The one relic on my bucket list.

gtodude. A solid contribution of info. kudos.
 
Dan,

One last note, if your watch movement isn’t stamped with a country of origin, which looks to be the case. Your find using deductive reasoning would be from the the earliest of 1857 to the latest of 1871. I would venture to guess somewhere in the 1860’s is most feasible. Any pictures of the other side of the movement?

Great find!!
 
That’s a sweet find! And there’s some good info in this thread, I know who to hit up if I find 1 of my own lol


Bounty hunter - treasure hunter - cabelas
Best find to date - 15g platinum ring
 
That's great find. all the pocket watches Ive fond over the years have been plated. Congrats on the silver watch!
 
Dan,

One last note, if your watch movement isn’t stamped with a country of origin, which looks to be the case. Your find using deductive reasoning would be from the the earliest of 1857 to the latest of 1871. I would venture to guess somewhere in the 1860’s is most feasible. Any pictures of the other side of the movement?

Great find!!

Here are a few more pictures. I managed to find the porcelain face of the watch going through some other items that I had found it where my trash bag. I did line up all the holes with that on the clock hope this is helpful.

You will also notice some bubbling and a small piece gone it appears that had been in a fire. Thank you very much for the information research in history.

One picture shows the clock laying on its face and how the back wood look open.
 

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Pocket watches are such cool finds. That one is from Wallingford Watch Company. I would guess the "COIN" stamp means coin silver, which would be 90%; part of the reason you thought it was a coin. Very cool!

Great find...congrats!

A cool find for sure.

That IS silver!! That thing is beautiful!!! Congrats on a killer find!!

Dan B. awesome find. The one relic on my bucket list.

gtodude. A solid contribution of info. kudos.

That’s a sweet find! And there’s some good info in this thread, I know who to hit up if I find 1 of my own lol


Bounty hunter - treasure hunter - cabelas
Best find to date - 15g platinum ring

Congrats on your first silver pocket watch...definitely a excellent dig!

Congrats on that killer find!

I've dug a lot of watches over the years, but never a silver one. Still on my bucket list!

That's great find. all the pocket watches Ive fond over the years have been plated. Congrats on the silver watch!

Thanks to all of you.HH &GL& AND KEEP YOUR COIL TO THE SOIL.
 
Awesome find there, Dan! I’ve no doubt that field has plenty more interesting finds just waiting for a coil to hover over them!

Dan,

One last note, if your watch movement isn’t stamped with a country of origin, which looks to be the case. Your find using deductive reasoning would be from the the earliest of 1857 to the latest of 1871. I would venture to guess somewhere in the 1860’s is most feasible. Any pictures of the other side of the movement?

Great find!!

Fantastic research and info on that watch, gtodude! Thanks for posting all of that!
 
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