Spent $45 on a cheap USB microscope and IDed a maker's mark on my first try

Riley Taylor · 2026-10-02T12:15:04.312403+00:00

Found a plain clay pipe bowl at a creek site near Hays, Kansas last month and could not make out the stamp for anything. Ordered a $45 USB microscope off Amazon mostly as a joke, and 20 minutes in I could read "TD" inside a small oval, which points to a Dutch maker from around 1880. I know it is not a Roman villa or anything, but nailing a date on a random creek find felt great. Anyone else use cheap optics for tiny marks, or is there a better sub-$100 setup I should look at?

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Spent $45 on a cheap USB microscope and IDed a maker's mark on my first try | Archaeology Discoveries - SMM Buzz