After-College Dig with Questions

Today began my college-career. Afterward, I went back to the place where my story mentioned here took place. It is the same lot as the intact Pinco and such-- directly across from where I dug the 1869 penny (you'll see why I bring this up.) Well, here's the story from today: I had gone to the lot immediately after college for I wanted to retrieve the stuff I had to leave behind last week. I had the van, so I could bring back a googly amount of junked-out antique/vintage items, pavers, and anything else of interest. Well, today the demolition crews were still working. Walking around with one paw full of shards and the other carrying the insulator-on-a-stick that I had found in a new pile of rubble, I spotted out of the corner of my eye a man coming toward me. Assuming it was a construction- (destruction-) worker, I walked up to him and began asking questions before he could-- even if I knew the answer to some already: What was on the lot before? Are the buildings over there still occupied? What plans are there for the lot? &c. He answered that he and his crew had taken out the old foundry and were gonna complete clean-up by next week. He asked what I was doing on there, so I told him, "Just looking for old things of interest," and I showed him the shards and Pinco, also making note of the sad fact that it is indeed broken. He told me to be careful and walked back to a dump-truck. I stayed another ten minutes although I didn't really have any reason to-- I stayed just to make sure that he wouldn't get suspicious if I had left quickly. I poked around, found nothing of interest in the fresh-turned dirt, and poked around some weeds just to be sure that I got everything. What I didn't tell him was that in my left pocket was 1903 Indian-Head penny that had been thrown up with some dirt a while ago onto the sidewalk full of stones and shattered glass and porcelain.I even found a tooled-top bottle with its original cork still in it-- it was in a forest of weeds that shot up higher than my 6 feet. Here is the best Harris Paver of Zanesville that I have found there (anywhere.) It looks like crap because, well, the company seems to have not embossed things very well. On some of their pavers, you cannot even read a full word. Here is the paver that I had to abandon last time along with some other items. Rimble, or something-- I'm not familiar with it, and it is severely damaged. I assume that this was used to mount stuff waaayyyyy back in the day, as most stuff there was Pre-WW1. I drove off after scanning the sidewalk for anything else of interest-- a shattered purpled milk was the only thing that I had missed as it was partially buried in dirt. So here is today's Pinco: A triple-tone PINCO-8 / 2064-R. When is it from? It's still attached to its hardware-- I want the hardware (what i its proper name?) which is even embossed with a letter J, but it's stuck in the insulator.How do I get it out without breaking the insulator even more?????????????The metal is totally solid still. Also, what is this: Must have taken a lot to warp and break it like that. I assume that it, like a number of things, has to do with power-- I assume that it held something and had been broken by winds off the lake. PAGE / 15 P-2 is on both sides, and a spider made a home inside of it. Ideas on age? Power-related items are 1930s+ here. It's not nearly as old or in as nice of condition as the 1869 IHP that I had found here (the wreck post,) but it's in fair shape-- LIBERTY is still visible in person on the headband, the feathers mostly hold a few details, and the bars on the shield in the back are all clear along with some details in the leaves, but the high-points are worn on her face, the hair-strands seem to have all been melded together, and it has some scratches. It's also, quite obviously, lightly corroded over the entire front-- I'll try and clean it up and show pics.It's still only a $1 coin. A fun find it was to see on a sidewalk-- I've walked/ridden over that same sidewalk several times, and with my new glasses I could even tell that it was an IHP before I bent over. I was quite amazed, thanked God for it, and looked around.

Neat find, I would be thrilled with that penny.The big metal thing is the finial on the post of a chain link fence, it secured the top horizontal rail. It's made out of poor quality cast iron and it wouldn't take a huge amount of pressure to bend / warp it that way. The PINCO insulator is late, probably from the 1960s, and has the coated top to eliminate or diminish interference with radio transmission. Used for voltage above regular house current. Hope that helps put things in perspective. Jim

I was, that's for sure. Is it? Shame. I was hoping that it was more interesting of an item.Thanks, though, for the info. But how do I get the metal bar out without further busting things up???

Secure the metal pin in a stout vice and turn the insulator, counter clockwise, with a strap wrench, web type not the rubber or chain type. You might have to use a cheater bar for more leverage. If you break that insulator I will send you another or similar one. They are not expensive. Jim

I'll have to look into some of these tools-- perhaps the college has some that I can borrow. The insulator is already broken. It wouldn't be a loss to see it more broken. Thanks for the offer and-- again-- the information.

That Indian head is "killer". I have been metal detecting for a few years and have yet to find an Indian.Great find Bear.

Thanks, Bottle Rocket. I've found a 1940s Walking Liberty silver half-dollar, an 1869 IH, now a 1903 IH, a few Wheaties from the '30s+, and a 1950s quarter-- all without metal detectors-- whilst digging in the past two years. Sometimes they pop up with the shovel-- not recognizable as a coin, but too perfectly shaped to be natural-- and other times they're just lying there. Today I thought that I had a coin. It turns out that I was wrong, but I did make a few other finds including a local stopper, a broken but local stoneware bottle, and a milk-glass hen's head as will soon be posted. Great luck with your detecting!

I would love to see a picture of the walking liberty and the 1869 coin.

Mentioned here.It's rough, but beneath the warped, mortared-over coin exists a lot of details. It would have been very fine--Like this penny turned out after I used 3% boiling H2O2 on it a number of times: Read all about this penny, the cleaning, and it's story here: https://www.antique-bottles.net/forum/Find-a-penny-pick-it-up-m679807.aspx You won't be disappointed. My stories usually turn out interesting-- even today's. I couldn't even read the date when I had dug it. You could only be sure of the 8. And then the 6. Then the 1. Then, finally, the 9-- a key date.