Backyard archaeology - coin hoard

When we moved into the 1850 family homestead in 1990, there were generations of family stuff (still is!) in the attic. We found several bottle dumps out back. One of my brothers-in-law was a bit of a waster and lived here with his mother most of his life. He was always collecting anything he could sell for drinking money. There was a wooden crate full of old metal junk sitting by the corner of the house out back which I never bothered to look at and it slowly disintegrated. Yesterday, Jon and I decided to clean up the yard. As we started filling buckets with rusty metal bits, I started finding old coins in one corner. They are all dated 1818-1851 and nearly every one is damaged in some way. Most have random holes. I cleaned a couple to see details. I figure nothing I do is going to reduce the value any more than they are already. A clue to the source popped up when I found a 1974 penny underneath most of the hoard. Obviously, Tom left them in the crate. I just can't figure out if he damaged them or if he found them somewhere like that and why someone would do that. It was kind of exhilarating.

 

A new thing for me - explore the term "holed" coins.


https://www.facebook.com/GoneDiggin...lieve-that-they-were-altered/759303029339764/