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Gone Detecting and Turned Up "Broke"...

DoctorWhy

Full Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2016
Messages
240
Location
Island in Penobscot Bay, Maine
I have been researching a long-forgotten homestead on my Maine island home. It does not show on a 1776 map, is marked on an 1881 map and disappears from a 1903 map. Using a GPS with an overlay of the 1881 map, I was able to get close to the site but no cellar hole was immediately obvious. After stumbling around in the woods with the detector for a couple hours, hearing only 'iron grunts', I finally found a well-defined cellar hole cammoflaged by brush and a couple huge blown-down spruce trees. Searching around the cellar hole I found a handle fragment of an old brass spoon, a fragment of a bone-handled dinner knife, a scythe fragment...and this coin! Out of the ground, it was failry crusty, but the word "BROKE" was visible over a bust on the obverse. A shadow of Britannia and the date "1814" were visible on the reverse. After some research I learned that the coin was from Nova Scotia, was a 1/2 penny token, and was minted in honor of Captain Phillip Broke, commander of the British warship, HMS Shannon and his capture of the US Chesapeake during the War of 1812.

The site is so overgrown with tall weeds, grass, brush and covered with blow-down, so I'll probably return to do a more detailed search in the Fall once the overgrowth has died off. Can't wait...

Happy Hunting!
--Bert
 

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That's an awesome find. And great job scouting out the place. Do you have websites you use for old maps?
 
Congratulation DoctorWhy on finding the Nova Scotia 1/2 penny token. Very cool!

I use "Old Maps Online" to locate my sites and it has really paid off for me as well.
 
At least you found a coin. My brother and I hit a cellar hole yesterday, deep in the woods. 95 degrees, stinging nettle, ticks and mosquitoes. I was concentrating so hard on my swinging I walked right into a shoulder high hornets nest, got tagged twice, one in the face. We hunted for almost 5 hours. Nothing at all, certainly nails etc but no love.
 
Cool! I found an 1814 Canadian halfpenny earlier this year. The bust on the obverse is different but the reverse is almost identical.
 
Great discovery of the site and the coin. Not your everyday walk in the park and it paid off. Good luck on the next hunt.
 
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