2025 Finds, March and April
Today’s blog is a review of my detecting finds from the last two months. First up, is in my opinion, a really odd find. I was revisiting an area where I’ve found a few nice items in the past, and as I swung the detector around the base of a tree I got a very loud hit. I figured it was just an old soda or beer can, but to my surprise, it turned out to be a leather billfold. I opened it up, and it was filled with nothing but coins. I thought it a bit odd that there was no paper money, photos, credit cards, or even a driver’s license. It contained a total of $3.37, and the coins appeared to be part of a collection. The newest coin was from 1978, so I’m guessing that’s about when it was lost.
In mid-March, I went to Wildwood, NJ for two days. I left with $35.64, which included a $5 bill and two $1 bills from under the boardwalk, a Sacajawea dollar, a silver Roosevelt dime, and a sterling silver ring.
On another day, I was detecting a wooded area where I thought there might be an old homesite. I never really found any sign of it, but I did find a really nice bottle. It was just laying among some leaves. I couldn’t believe a hunter didn’t find it, or (since it had collected water over the years) that it didn’t freeze and break. After posting it on a local Facebook website, I learned that it is a blob-top beer bottle from the late 19th or early 20th century. Is this a bottle from Chambersburg’s first craft brewery?
I also found two cap pistols, both of which appear to date from the late ‘50’s or early ‘60’s. I have found numerous toy guns that I’ll feature in a future post, so stay tuned.
The picture below is another collection of finds from detecting excursions across several dates. On the left, although not a cork top, is an interesting bottle. It’s embossed “Omega Oil—It’s Green”, and it was a pain relief “medicine”. The next bottle was probably a little perfume sampler. The lighter is another Zippo for my collection. See my blog on lighters here. Next are a couple of old buckles, and the item to the right of the Zippo is a tie clip. The last item is a pocket knife that has been in the ground for quite awhile. See my blog on pocket knives here.
My best finds for the last two months (in my opinion) are two coins. The first is a Standing Liberty Quarter with a San Francisco mint mark. Generally speaking, older coins with a mint mark have a lower mintage than coins minted in Philadelphia, which (until recently) did not have a mint mark. It goes without saying that lower mintage coins are generally worth more. As usual, there are exceptions to this generality. The Standing Liberty Quarter was minted from 1916 to 1930. It was noticed that the date wore off easily because it was too high and not protected by other features. In 1925, a depression was made in the pedestal on which Lady Liberty stands, thus preventing the date from wearing so quickly. Based on the condition of my quarter, I believe this was pre-1925.
The other coin I found, which is a half-dime, is my second oldest US silver coin, narrowly losing out to the former record holder by one year. Coincidentally, that coin is also a half-dime. Half-dimes began mintage in 1794, and continued through 1873, although the last 10 years or so, mintages were relatively low. Half-dimes preceded the nickel, which didn’t begin production until 1866.
I found this flat button (below) with a nice design on the obverse, and quite a bit of gilt still clinging to the reverse. Probably 99% of the flat buttons I find don’t have any design on them, so to find one with a design and a bit of gilt is really fun! Check my blog on buttons here; it’s one of the most popular of my blogs so far.
This assortment of jewelry includes four rings encircled by a bangle bracelet, above a Hamsa Hand.
The Hamsa is a symbol representing protection and good luck. This example is intricately carved with palm lines and finger knuckle grooves. I found two different versions of the history (or backstory) about the Hamsa Hand online. In one version, the Hamsa, also known as the Hand of Fatima, is a symbol representing protection and good luck, particularly in Middle Eastern and North African cultures. In the other version, it means “five,” representing the fingers of the right hand. For Hindu’s and Buddhists, it symbolizes chakra energy flow in the body.
