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CIVIL WAR PERIOD EXCAVATED IRON PIN / SPIKE RELIC
GETTYSBURG THEMED FRAMED DISPLAY — RICHARD “DICK” HAMMOND COLLECTION
WHAT YOU RECEIVE
You receive the exact item shown: one excavated Civil War period iron pin / spike relic displayed in the black rectangular shadow-box frame with vintage-style Gettysburg artwork and yellow “Gettysburg” lettering. The iron is mounted as recovered. Frame is a modern presentation box. Photographs are of the actual piece.
ITEM DETAILS
• Long cylindrical forged iron body with heavy dug oxidation, mixed rust-brown / copper-tone patina, and soil staining
• One end is a rounded / slightly mushroomed head
• Opposite end shows a square iron shank / tang protruding from the body, with remaining fibrous soil / root material in the socket area
• Honest excavated surface — pitting, scale, and age wear consistent with 19th-century iron recovered from the ground
• Sold as a Civil War period excavated iron pin / spike relic (picket-pin, wagon, or railroad-related iron of the type recovered on 1860s sites). No unit ID and no specific Gettysburg acreage is claimed.
CONDITION
As-found relic condition. Expected corrosion, surface loss, and burial wear. The square tang remains seated. Frame shows light handling wear. This is an excavated artifact, not a cleaned or restored piece.
FOUND BY THE HUNTER — RICHARD HAMMOND
Richard Hammond (b. April 2, 1929) was raised at the family farm Bloomfield, near Dranesville, Fairfax County, Virginia — minutes from Herndon.
• Started hunting nearby fields as a boy.
• In 1954 he built his first metal detector and dug a U.S. belt plate at Ball’s Bluff. That find locked him into the hobby for the next fifty years.
• Primary ground: Northern Virginia and the upper Potomac.
• Founding member of the Northern Virginia Relic Hunters Association (NVRHA), America’s oldest organized Civil War relic club (chartered 1972).
• In 1969, Hammond and Jerry Michael — Hutchison grandsons — removed and reinterred two unknown Confederate soldiers from family land at Cub Run into Herndon’s Chestnut Grove Cemetery. The stone still credits him by name.
• He kept every find and wrote the recovery location on it.
His collection was cataloged and sold at Redding sale Service, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, January 13–14, 2024. These relics were purchased from that dispersal. You are buying a piece of that paper trail, not a relic with a story invented last week. Among Northern Virginia collectors, Hammond provenance is the point. He was not a television name. He was one of the men who taught the hobby how to keep a site tag on the bag.
IMPORTANT
No specific battlefield provenance is claimed beyond the Hammond collection and the Gettysburg-themed display. Sold as a Civil War period excavated iron relic. Adult collector item. Treasure-hunter sourced. Combined shipping available. Gift wrap on request.
WHY BUY FROM THE FAITHFUL AVIATORS — TREASURE HUNTER STORE
Honest dug patina. Clear photos of the actual piece. Provenance you can read, not invent. Fast combined shipping on multiple relics.
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