Wow I have not posted in over a month! The ground here in SE Michigan has been bone dry until about 2 weeks ago. First couple pics are from early August at various parks and public spots where I managed a bit of silver and some relics including a luggage tag perhaps, locket and a Hotel tag too.
This past week I was up at my family cottage in northern Michigan. I have found many cool things up there in the past. My cottage is not too far away from Mackinac Island which has 300 + years of history not including the Native American history up there. The first day I dug 2 musket balls in my front yard...not sure how I missed this the previous 5 years as they were obvious signals. I would wager these are at least from the mid 1800s. It is well documented that when the British were occupying Fort Mackinac they would visit the area where my cottage is now...so maybe these were dropped by them?
3 summers ago I found a British 41st Regiment of Foot Officers button up near my cottage in the woods. It was made between 1787-1812.
I ended up with 6 musket balls total for the week. My youngest son also found a nice one. 4 of the 7 seemed to be dropped. I do not have a pic of the one my son found but I do have a pic of him holding a slug I found...this thing was BIG! about 4+ inches long. I think they are called leopard slugs.
I also found an indian arrow head point made out of copper. There was a lot of indian activity in that area as well and the indians would trade with the French and/or British for many things including copper. I visited the Historical Society Museum near by and they had some examples of indian copper artifacts including Tinkling Cones that were found in the area. I am a member of the Ohio Archeological Society and so is my Dad so I sent him pics of it for his opinion and he too is certain that it is indeed an indian artitact. It is 1 1/8'' long. You can tell that it was handmade because it is not perfectly symmetrical and the bevels are uneven in spots too.
The coins were hiding from me this trip with one AMAZING exception! I managed 1 silver coin and it was of my favorite US coin type. I found my best condition SLQ! A 1919 S! I have a friend who has a coin business and he thinks this is a $300 coin easily. Nothing beats finding your favorite coin type!
Well I hope to get out more since we have had some great rain here.
Jared
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