UPDATE – Big Gold Watch Back from the Jeweler

***UPDATED INFO***
Well, I got the call from my jeweler this morning. He managed to get the back off. It took two days of soaking. The inner workings are, most regrettably, “toast.” The buildup of rust had leeched into the threads, thus the difficulty in removing the back.

The good news is that it is, indeed, an authentic Illinois Watch Works “Santa Fe Special.” Here’s a pic with the back off.

This is what it should look like …

I was able to get the serial number … 2885910,

and based upon pocketwatchsite.com (http://www.pocketwatchsite.com/illinoisserials.html), this number dates the manufacture in the year 1916! I remain amazed that I found a watch in the ground, that old, in such amazing condition.

It sure looks like pure gold. But … the bad news is that is is 10k gold filled. crybaby2

So, there are probably 5 or 6 grams of actual gold in the watch, but that’s about it. And I don’t know if it could be extracted, or if anyone would fool with it.

All that to say … basically, what I have is a really shiny conversation piece.

But I’m still counting it as a “Gold find” for 2012. laughing7

Oh, well. Solid AU was a little too much to hope for, I suppose. Guess I’ll go cry by meself for a while.

Thanks for keeping up with my little saga. notworthy

Dreamed About Silver, But All I Could Find Was Big Gold!

I braved the cold this afternoon to hunt an old school grounds that I recently received permission to hunt. The school existed from around the late 1940′s until just a few years ago. I was hoping that it would be a prime spot for some junk silver coinage.

I even dreamed about it last night … I think I dug over 100 silver coins in one day in that dream.

Anyhow … five minutes after I chose my starting spot and began to walk my very first line, I got a very strong “half-dollar/dollar” VDI on my MXT. I automatically assumed that it was a can or lid, but when I checked the depth it was reading in the 4-5 inch range. Intrigued, I kicked my relic shovel into the sod and turned over a plug. And shining forth from that plug was this piece of sweetness … it looked exactly like this. Not a blemish on it. All I did was rinse off the dirt!

Here’s a close-up of the decorative edge …

You can’t read it on the face, but I can see with a magnifying glass (and the watch held at an angle in bright light) the words “Santa Fe Special” and “Illinois.”

Turns out this is a size 14, open-face Santa Fe Special railroad watch made by the Illinois Watch Company in Springfield, IL. As best I can tell, this company was in operation under this name from 1869 until 1927.

I’m having trouble identifying the specific type and year of manufacture. And I can’t, for the life of me, figure out how to get the back off and check the serial number for a positive ID.

Any suggestions would be helpful …

From the look of the finish it appears to be 18k gold (most likely filled). Most likely not solid, but still a measurable amount of gold.

I’m stoked. This one find saved the day … all the rest was clad.

Thanks for looking! HH

On the Board! My First Silver of 2012!

I haven’t had a lot of time to invest in getting onto new sites lately, so I returned to my old stand-by … the 1960′s school that has blessed me with 13 silver dimes and over 250 coins.

Once again, she came through for me.  I dug 50 coins total, including 6 wheaties and this little piece of sweetness – a 1947-D Rosie.

I’m on my way!

Happy hunting to all.

A Surprise in My Tumbles!

Yesterday I separated my pennies from my fake silver, worthless, American clad coinage that I dug this past year for tumbling.  I loaded the tumbler before bed last night, ready for rinsing and drying this morning.

I was quite shocked when I found this shiny little disc in with my junk clad.

It’s a 1943-P 40% silver War Nickel!  A surprise silver/gold find #98 for 2011!  I must have dug it on my last day of hunting, December 28, before bad weather and my kitchen paint job (one of my Christmas presents for my wife … along story) kicked in.  I dug a LOT of nickel signals that day and had a pouch full of nasty 5-centers.  I didn’t look at any of them very closely.  My bad …

The tumbler really did a number on that soft silver.  I can barely make out the date.

Oh, well … it just goes in with all my other “junk silver” anyways.  A nice surprise this morning, and I didn’t even have to go swinging to find it!

And I almost forgot … another surprise! I found a 1964-D silver Rosie in my daughter’s change last week.  I saw it laying on her dresser and thought that it looked suspiciously like silver.  I was right!  Bonus find!  I made the MXT “whump-whump” signal with my mouth as I waved my hand over the coin just to make it legal.   That was silver find #97 for me in 2011.

Here’s a picture …

Thanks for looking.  There’s still silver out there!  HH

Two More SIlver Dimes! That Makes 13 For This Site!

We finally got some sunshine in Kentucky, so I got out to swing this afternoon at the “Dime School.” Before today I had dug 11 silver dimes (8 Rosies / 3 Mercs) and a sterling Catholic medal.

Chalk up two more today! Unbelievably, they were my first two targets out of the ground! One is my oldest find on the site … a 1936 Merc (nicely worn), and the other is a 1958-D Rosie. I also dug 6 wheats and $1.29 in old clad.

I’ll be hitting it again tomorrow afternoon, really slowing down and going for the gold signals!

These make silver/gold find #’s 95 & 96 for me in 2011! I only have three days to find four more and break 100!

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Whites MXT & Garrett ProPointer / Oldest Coin – 17** 1/4 Cut Spanish 8 Reale / Silver Coins – 134 / Coin Count – 2,804 / Clad Total – $191.89

A Little Christmas Silver

I managed about an hour and a half of hunting right before dark yesterday.  And that’s not easy, considering that the Winter Solstice day (Dec. 21) is the shortest day of the year.  I am soooo tired of it getting dark at 4:30 here in beautiful Kentucky!

Anyhow … I hit another section of the very large schoolyard that I have been hunting this past couple of weeks.  Right now I’m just “cherry-picking” the higher VDI signals, trying to clear out the silver.  And so far my methodology has worked out just fine!

I added two more silver dimes, both (interestingly) 1964-D’s. Here they be:

That makes a total of 11 silver dimes from this school yard!  I just wish I knew where the quarters are hiding!!  Once again, I dug a pouch full of high VDI copper Lincolns.  Every one of them read 78-80 VDI, and some even gave a whisper of 81-82.  Must be the soil in this particular yard.  I dug close to $3 in clad, including a very fresh drop of four shiny quarters, right on top of the ground. (Not sure where those came from … this place has been abandoned for over 40 years.)

But my “banner find” for the day was one of my very last digs, right before it got too dark for me to see.  I got another 79 VDI and, expecting another 1960 Lincoln, was thrilled to roll over this gorgeous sterling Catholic four-way pendant medal.  It’s a little bigger than a quarter, with roughly the same mass (weight) as two dimes.  Here are front and back views:

It’s cool finding this piece of history, which has been in this ground for at least 40 … most likely for 50 … years.

And I might just be able to hit 100 silver/gold finds this year.  These account for finds #92-94.  If I can just pull out six more before next weekend!

 

Lots of Shiny Dimes!

I hit the jackpot this afternoon!  I went for a couple of hours to hunt an old school that I’ve been working lately.  It’s a school with an odd time period of use.  It was in operation from the early 1960′s until the early 1970′s, then it was closed down.  I found three silver dimes there last week.  Honestly, I didn’t hold out much hope for finding any more.

Boy, was I wrong!

I dug 8 wheat pennies …

And, curiously enough, I dug 3 old Canadian pennies from our Wheat Penny period …

But the real “goods” was the 6 silver dimes that I found!  All in a relatively small area!

I also dug a pretty good pile of clad.  Actually, there’s not a Zincoln in the bunch.  All of the pennies are genuine copper from the 1960′s.  Every one of them gave a really high / borderline dime VDI.  Frustrating …

Another Rosie …

I got out for just a little while between rain showers today.  I dug 29 coins total, including four wheaties from the 1950′s and a single silver … a 1952-D Rosie.

Love that silver!

A Little Silver … Plus a Couple of Bonus Finds

I’ve been out on several short hunts lately. No stellar finds in recent weeks, but I have gotten onto a few decent digs.

Here is my latest video, with story and pics below.

I hit up an old school in my community that was only used for about 10 years. It was just after the “age of silver,” around 1965-1975 or so. I didn’t hold out much hope for finding anything good. But I managed to dig 57 coins, including 7 wheats and these two “bonus” silvers!

I also dug this old “Senior Key” from 1988. My heart skipped a beat when I rolled it over in my plug. I thought it was gold at first. It is initialed on the back, and with just a little detective work I managed to find out the name of the owner. She still lives here in this community. I’m waiting to get her number from a friend and reunite her with her lost jewelry this week.

Finally, yesterday I hunted a trusty cornfield with my buddy, Western KY Digger. I pulled several flat buttons, pieces of buckshot and various small lead pieces, as well as a brass o-ring and j-shaped hook. Hard digging, but lots of fun. Digger dug a rather large flat button and the biggest zouave button I’ve ever seen.

Thanks for reading and looking! I hope to have more for you next week. I’m working on permission for a couple of new spots.

I Keep Digging Eagles!

I had a great week this week. No decent coins to speak of, but I keep pulling curious relics out of this old Kentucky ground.My first (and coolest) find this week was on Monday. While hunting a familiar piece of ground, I got a sketchy but repeating signal at eight inches. By far the deepest target I’ve dug on the site.

I was mystified when I pulled this out of the ground …

Here’s a reverse view.

I had no clue what it was. A disc with a curious General Service eagle and a strangely wide shield. A FMDF member quickly identified it as a “sash” belt buckle from around 1855. It was marketed for both civilian and military use, and is apparently one of the rarer forms. He posted a picture of an intact buckle here …

Here is a picture of it in context, with several other (what I believe are) Civil War era artifacts from the same site:

Then yesterday I hunted for a short while at a couple of different sites. I hunted an old home site near a Civil War skirmish location with Western Kentucky Digger in the morning. I only found a very small, shankless, flat button.

Afterwards, I went downtown to our local park. It is SOOOOOOO trashy, so I was only digging deep targets. Then I got this solid 42-44 VDI signal at about 4 inches in depth. Flipped the plug and found this little baby!
It’s 15 mm, and either a Yankee cuff or kepi button. Still has a little gilt on it.

Here’s a pic with a ruler for perspective:

Curiously, it was a tin-back button, as evidenced by the rust …

This led me to have some authenticity doubts, since there have been re-enactments on this site for the last two years or so … but I have difficulty believing that a button could go that deep in that short a period of time. I’e consulted with a couple of local CW diggers, who have assured me that there were, indeed, tin-back versions of this size button, especially on the kepi hats. The ones I’ve talked to seem to think that it’s the real deal.

Pretty cool …

Here’s my latest video, with both of these finds and more. Enjoy, and HH!

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Garrett GTP 1350 & PP, Whites MXT / Oldest Coin – 17** 1/4 Cut Spanish 8 Reale / Silver Coins – 120 / Coin Count – 2,453 / Clad Total – $168.38