My bad on the date Jerry. Its an 86. Old age and eyes are not always a good combo. lol
Old pennies....
When we bought the house we live in [25 years ago] we did so in the winter. When spring came, what we thought was a nice piece of woods turned out to be a landfill from years and years ago....as in over a century before. It turned out that the houses up and down the street as well as a major manufacturing facility were all built on Rochester's former dump. A year after we purchased our home flood retoration and prevention projects bloosomed behind us and things got cleaned up. After each day's work was finished I'd go back on our property and sift thru the dirt where equipment had dug out old crap. Honest....I salvaged hundreds of old medicine bottles, marbles and old coins. I have an old sock full of pennies [including maybe fifty or so "large cent pieces], nickels, dimes, quarters, half dollars and silver dollars from the turn of the last century. I also have two five dollar gold pieces that were dug from the muck. I found a couple old perfume bottles that have sold for over $40.00 apiece. The coins I've found and the pistola are resting nicely in our safe deposit box. That pistol was fully loaded when I found it. The ammunition was derilect though. I've only seen three or four places that I could get the .32 caliber fodder for it. And then It wouldn't be smart to shoot the gun. Makes for an interesting conversation though and it has some really decent value as it sits.
A real treasure was an "under hammer, pin-fire revolver. Its was found in an old two gallon can wrapped in oilcloth. I found this about a block awayy where the work was happening after it passed our place. The coins were common and according to old lore kids would shoot rats with both marbles and coins from slingshots after school and on weekends just for something to do. About a mile from here and further towards the countryside I used to shoot rats at sunset with a .22 in what I thought was Rochester's only landfill as a kid. Back then I never thought about how small Rochester was in the mid to late 1800's.
