I had a local collector call me and ask if he could bring over a bannerstone he recently found to have a COA done on it for documentation reasons.  A short while later he arrived with the dandy winged banner that was fresh from the field.
  We took it over to the sink and ran some hot water on it and took a toothpic to the dirt in the hole and got it nicely cleaned out - what a super find!


   

The only damage it seemed to have was a shallow plow scar area on the top of the barrel area on one side. A few degrees difference in the angle and that plow would have split it in two.
Other than damage from plows, one of the most common forms of damage to bannerstones is from freezing.  Moisture gets into the dirt in the hole area and when it freezes and expands, it will often break the bannerstone in two, right at the center of the barrel area.
 
If you ever find a banner half that is broken in the middle - make sure to keep searching that same area year-after-year!  You never know when you are going to find the other half!

Nice Find here Mr. Crouch!  Thanks for bringing it over and letting me have the chance to handle and inspect such a great relic ... glad that you were able to save this one and thus preserve it for future generations to enjoy - 

 
Jim Bennett
www.oldrelics.com