Philadelphia Pieces of Eight

by Mike
(Chalfont PA)

Back in the early 70's they were constructing interstate I-95 through Philadelphia along the river front in center city. one portion was a tunnel near where colonial ships docked.In colonial times there was a canal before you got to the ships that the colonial fathers filled in due to it becoming stagnant and foul possibly becoming a health hazard.This construction also dug up and knocked down many colonial houses. Metal detecting was useless due to the amount of junk in the ground such as nails. Eyeballing the surface did pay off big time though. Most common were large cents and small denomination Spanish silver. The silver I found I made into a necklace for my wife (see picture) most of the pieces were already holed but I do admit holing a few for the necklace.

Then one day while the construction was going on the unearthed some cannons. Well that's when the fence went up, security was hired and we were barred from the site.

besides the coins tons of glass bottles were dug up, mostly green onion glass bottles. but the construction shattered 99% of the glass the dug up. It wasn't until the cannons were found that an archeologist was brought in. What they did with the cannons and anything else they decided to keep I have no idea. We ran into a group of guys that came all the way from Kansas to excavate the old colonial wells. I'm 70 now and was like 24-25 then and sure as hell wish I could go back with what I know now. Most of the coins are pretty worn oldest readable date is 1735.

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