Nancy O'Malley wrote:
>
> I have two sites that yielded pierced buttons or coins--both of them late
> 18th century pioneer stations in Kentucky. Daniel Boone's Station near
> Lexington, Kentucky, yielded a very worn English large cent with an image
> of King George II and a date of either 1741 or 1747. It has a crudely
> drilled hole near its edge and is very similar in appearance to ones posted
> by Carl Steen. This site was occupied from 1779 until approximately the
> 1840s. The other site is Hugh McGary's Station near Harrodsburg, Kentucky
> that was occupied from 1779 to 1788 with little or no residential
> occupation postdating McGary's stay there (just typical agricultural
> activities). I recovered a button that had a large hole in its center where
> the eyelet formerly was. The button is 1 inch in diameter and the hole is
> 3/8 by 1/4 inch in size so the hole constitutes about 9% of the area of the
> button.
>
> While these are interesting examples, I recovered two other artifacts from
> McGary's Station that intrigue me. One is a large brass button with an
> eyelet--probably late 18th century--that has been bent, not quite in half,
> but enough that it looks like it was intentional. The other is a 1919
> Lincoln penny that also is bent.
> Any ideas concerning bent buttons and coins? It was suggested to me that
> they might have been used for target practice by someone visiting the
> site--I guess by tossing them up into the air and shooting at them which
> seems a little far-fetched to me, but maybe possible. Any suggestions will
> be appreciated.
Nancy
My father and Uncle used to toss pennies out over the side of the hill
and shoot them with a .22 rifle for practice, sometimes hitting 4 out of
5 so it may not be that far fetched. But I don't know what they looked
like afterwards. We also used small silver coins as fishing lures,
drilling and twisting them so they acted as spinners
John