eDonnie B. and I ventured out yesterday for some unusually warm detecting as it almost hit 50 degrees ! I took no pictures of the sites as they were really not much to look at or covered in saplings or briars. Donnie and I scored mostly buttons but he did get on the board first with a nice early copper and I didn't get my first copper until our third site .It was a "young head" King George II halfpenny (1727 to 1739 era ) but while cleaning it I discovered a few interesting facts about it . The highlighted areas show the proof of it being a sand cast counterfeit , no.1 the slight rim "burr" at the 3 o'clock position , while its not uncommon for colonial coins to have rim burrs due to the planchet making or after minting damage coins can get this one looks suspicious. when cast coins are poured into a mold there is usually an enter hole and sometimes an exit hole for the molten metal to flow in and out of . A sprue ( a excessive tag or small blob of metal) is usually associated with these holes and either have to be broken or files off and if they are broke off they can usually take a bit of the coin edge with them leaving a mark we see here. no.2 cast coins often have uneven surfaces the circle on this coin (by the way its the same coin I posted dirty) shows a low spot on the coin and the coin is actually a bit thinner in thickness on this side than the opposite edge.the reverse shows an unusual blob or protrusion I circled which can happen in sand cast molds where a void in the mold was filled by the molten metal and the overall porous surface again is not uncommon . If this coin only had one of these features I may have not thought about it being a counterfeit but as you can see it has a few characteristics including file marks on its rim .
My next coin was a "older head " variety King George II half penny That was seriously "customized" for what I have no clue but its safe to say its "one of a kind" This variety of George is likely from 1740 to about 1760 and I kind of like it !
The group picture shows five of the 6 buttons I found ( I left out the pewter which is soaking but its a plain one ) .Oh , the one button I did find was a WWI era US Army uniform one !
Thanks for looking !