Mill Dump, w. video, pics

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RIBottleguy

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After all of the epic flooding, I figured walking riversides would be an excellent way to find some artifacts. I found plenty of shards at first, but then remembered an old mill site. I had found a bunch of old buttons dating from the Civil War to WWI and a little newer. The dump is a steep slope that was heavily dug in areas. I divided the dump into three sections. The first part contained buttons, the second buttons and coins, and the third bottles. A ways down the river was another heavily dug dump that was all 1940s-1960s, so I didn't miss much. At my spot I found a bunch of buttons, which I'll post sometime under unexpected finds. In the second dump section I was surprised and delighted to find some nicer coins! I've only found some wheat pennies before, so when I found a 1912 Barber dime, 1920 Walking Liberty quarter, and a 1904 Liberty nickel, it was a good day.

I returned a week later and found two Mercury dimes (1917, 1919), a 1908 Indian head, some wheaties, and an illegible Buffalo nickel. Some of the coins were in rough shape, but I don't complain about finding beat up coins...yet lol
Once I was satisfied all of the coins were safely in my pocket, I opened a hole in the bottle dump. I found a nice local ABM soda the previous week, and it wasn't long before bottles started coming out. The dump dated to the 1920-30s, which was good for sodas and milk bottles. Sure enough I pulled a nice milk out in a few minutes! It was embossed Geo. F. Angell, Apponaug, RI. No damage, so I was souped. Sadly the dump didn't produce many more keepers. At one point I hit a pocket of federal law whiskey flasks...ugh. The dump goes down a few feet, I went down three feet and there were more bottles below that. There's promise! I plan to visit it again once I finish school for the semester.

Here's a video of my hole:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uwiitaw__E


My hole
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The slope, heavily dug then eroded by the flood
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Close up of button dump
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The nicer coins
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The milk bottle
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THE BADGER

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great stuff RIBOTTLE,just the things you got from there already made it a nice dump,and great pictures also thanks for sharing. THE BADGER
 

DIGGIN DOC

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I FIND IT STRANGE TO FIND MONEY...ACTUAL COINS OUT THERE IN THE DIRT. JUST SEEMS ODD TO ME. LOL!
 

deacon_frost

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looks like some fun diggin to be had there...i was watching the video and thought to myself hey that looked like a marble and a few sec later you said thought i saw a marble[:)]did you ever find it? have you ever sifted any of that material?
 

RIBottleguy

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Hi deacon_frost, yes, I did find the marble! I don't have a sifter, but I started finding brass buttons in that hole, so I dug through it very carefully.
 

willong

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I FIND IT STRANGE TO FIND MONEY...ACTUAL COINS OUT THERE IN THE DIRT. JUST SEEMS ODD TO ME. LOL!

I'm with you; especially when you consider how much more those coins were worth back then (not considering later collectors' value). In a time when a man might make $2.00 for a day's labor, you'd think that people would keep track of their dimes and quarters. I can understand how coins might get discarded in the cushions of an old sofa, or under the seat of a wrecked auto. Does anyone in the forum have additional insight as to how coins would get discarded?

Will
 

RIBottleguy

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I had a few hunches for the coins. One possibility was that the clothes at the site were being used, and for some reason the mill got abandoned with them in it, pocket change and all. The mill used to produce fabric, and made uniforms for all different companies including fire departments and police stations. I've also considered someone hid or forgot a box/can of coins somewhere, and they spilled over the site. A lot of them are badly dented on one side, so I wonder if someone was using them for something. The possibilities...
 

Plumbata

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That Standing Liberty is beautiful; my favorite US coin design next to the walking liberty. I would seriously consider screening the area you found those coins in because a haul like that, simply picked off the surface, indicates that many more are likely buried nearby. Some of those buttons are probably pretty good as well. I dunno how feasible it would be to screen that dump but I can't say that i've seen any other assemblage of finds that would warrant sifting to the degree that your dump warrants it. Aside from newer Wheaties, I have only found 1 Indian, some gold wired dentures, and a silver spoon in all the dumps i've dug, and I like to check the piles after rains for marbles and coins and stoppers too. Whatever happened there 80+ years ago was unusual, and certainly justifies some closer scrutiny using a lightweight box with a bottom of 1/4 inch hardware cloth/screen. There may even be some lower denomination gold pieces in there, who knows.

Just think, if a shard or 2 on the surface indicates an entire bottle worth of glass buried in the area, then 70 or so cents of good old coins found on the surface may mean that there is 10 bucks face value or more buried within reach. Might be some darn rare ones in there, and if not, the silver ones at least would be in good shape. There could well be some seated liberties floating around in there too. You got my fire stoked!

Nice milk, by the way. [:)]
 

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