Time Bandits

  I have tried in vain this week to find some new sites, but my leads have all been dead ends--either no cellar hole where there should have been a cellar hole, or posted land, or bad directions leading me to a lonely and injured and starved end somewhere deep in the forests of Mid-Coast Maine. Ultimately, I ended up back where I started, on yet another hunt at the downtown Camden cellar hole that has been so productive this Spring. It was pouring like a "bahstud", like a cow pissing on a flat rock, as my grandfather used to say, but Matt and I wrapped up our machines and hit it.

  We weren't out very long, but the finds were decent. (To be fair and honest, some of these items were from a hunt earlier in the week, and I just haven't gotten around to cataloging.). Almost immediately, Matt found an amazing hand carved brass printing plate emblazoned with an image of a man walking through the countryside, and bearing a date of 1913. I have yet to get a picture of this, but I will post it as soon as I do. Then the coins, starting with what appears to be a 1900 Indian Head penny. I ended up with a total of five wheaties, three Indians, a buffalo, a 1913 silver Barber dime, and a 1943 silver Washington quarter. There was also a funny little tin token of some sort, probably from an old game, that seems to have been skewered by some nails--maybe somebody nailed it to the winner. 

  I also found an assortment of clock and watch pieces, one of which bears an inscription reading "Bar Harbor", which someone, probably the watch maker, had etched onto a plate inside of a pocket watch, where I don't imagine anyone but him would have seen it. There was an interesting two-piece object that I think was some sort of time travelling device, which has an inscription that reads, "...The Century 1903", and the smaller piece turns within the larger when they are interlocked, causing the bearer to travel through time. There is an array of buttons, one of which has information on the rear that I have not yet taken a magnifying glass to. Maybe some of you can make it out in the pic. There is a cute little flattened child's ring with an image of a cow jumping over the moon, and a suspender buckle that bears the inscription "Depose, La Merveille Use". And yes, it's "Use" and not "USA", regardless of what your lying eyes might tell you.