Recognize anything worth keeping?

[FlyingProspector]

So I got some time in today and while I didn't find anything that really excited me, I did find a couple unusual things. The big axe thing looked cheap and not too impressive but I figured it'd be made in china or something but it says made in Spain which I found interesting. The scissors seem really old but they are shot and totally rusted. Anyhow, I'm guessing its all garbage but I figured I'd run it by you guys first.

 

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[Critical Recovery]

Nothing you dig up is "garbage" it's all a discovery.. And I am pretty sure those scissors are the school type and can be from 1940 or 2000....
What of the coinage?
What re the years?

 

[FlyingProspector]

Haha yeah I suppose you're right on that. Every coin, especially, as I dug it up my heart goes crazy hoping its super old lol but unfortunately I think the oldest coin was 1981. That little mini sword handle thing is different idk what the heck it is.

 

[Critical Recovery]

Haha yeah I suppose you're right on that. Every coin, especially, as I dug it up my heart goes crazy hoping its super old lol but unfortunately I think the oldest coin was 1981. That little mini sword handle thing is different idk what the heck it is.

My first guess would be a letter opener that ended up being a "kid's toy"

 

[PullTabPete]

Where the heck are you digging? Looks like Medieval land. I usually find some clad and some misc items not 2 sided axe heads.

Anyways good luck, just waiting for the ground to thaw up in Michigan

Pete

 

[63bkpkr]

FP, you certainly have a unique collection of items there. Reminds me of someone who was into old world pageants. Every find is a question back out of the ground and now what to do with them? It is puzzling the mix of the items you've found.........63bkpkr

 

[davidfl]

that ax thing is called a halberd. it doesnt look it was in the ground very long, is the spike stainless?

 

[olfacere]

You wouldn't happen to have been hunting an old masonic lodge, would you? That halberd is not a common axe head by any means. When you see an empty suit of armour on TV or in a movie, that's the kind of weapon the suit is often holding. It's ceremonial and you said it was made in Spain. From the rust, you can tell that it is not stainless steel and that it originally had a very smooth finish. That thing could well have been expensive when it was new. There's also a piece of the old wooden shaft still in it. If I had been the one to dig that thing up, it might count as my most significant discovery yet (better than that brass garden hose nozzle; which cleaned up and works well, by the way).

The question now is: Why is there a halberd under your search coil?

 

[Critical Recovery]

You wouldn't happen to have been hunting an old masonic lodge, would you? That halberd is not a common axe head by any means. When you see an empty suit of armour on TV or in a movie, that's the kind of weapon the suit is often holding. It's ceremonial and you said it was made in Spain. From the rust, you can tell that it is not stainless steel and that it originally had a very smooth finish. That thing could well have been expensive when it was new. There's also a piece of the old wooden shaft still in it. If I had been the one to dig that thing up, it might count as my most significant discovery yet (better than that brass garden hose nozzle; which cleaned up and works well, by the way).

The question now is: Why is there a halberd under your search coil?

I believe that halberd is no more than 100 years old.
It is made of stamped sheet steel, and you can see the brushed finish marks on the heelspike.

 

[FlyingProspector]

Oh sorry I should have mentioned the halberd was not underground but just under some brush. It seems like chincy metal I just don't understand why Spain was pumping them out. I'm surprised nobody is very interested in the little (letter opener?) thing. I've never seen anything like it.

 

[cudamark]

My local park has a group that reenacts medieval plays and battles. They use those halberds so it's not crazy that you would find one. Pretty cool actually! Oh, the long plate with the hole in the middle is part of a drum brake system on a car. It goes on the brake shoe anchor and keeps the shoes in place and return springs from rubbing on the shoes.

 

[FlyingProspector]

Aahhh I see thanks, now I recognize that piece with the hole in the middle. And I bet you could be right on the reenactments.

 

[spartacus53]

Where the heck are you digging? Looks like Medieval land. I usually find some clad and some misc items not 2 sided axe heads.

If he's in Lodi, NJ, I bet he found that axe near the Medieval Times Castle in Lyndhurst, NJ

 

[olfacere]

I'll agree that the halberd isn't all that old. Given that it's not stainless, age should bring a lot of rust. Now that we know it was a surface deposit, it seems quite recent. I didn't say "re-enactment" or "reproduction" because those models are most often made of stainless (at least in the US).

The dagger-type letter opener was actually quite popular for a while. I've seen them before, but I haven't dug one. I often wonder how it's possible to find fired bullets in such pristine condition. I've found some slightly deformed, but yours is really well-shaped. The only way I know of to make a bullet stop without deforming is by firing it into water. Any idea why yours is so pretty?

 

[FlyingProspector]

Lodi not NJ but CA

Olfacere, well if two people tell me it was a letter opener, then I believe it. I thought that thing was a bullet at first too but it's hollowed out and threaded on the inside almost like a valve stem cap but a little bigger. Don't know what it was for. Then the top left is just a chunk of metal but its all mangled and unusually shaped. Not like a broken piece of machine part or something.

 

[olfacere]

Ah, that makes sense, then. I've seen stuff like that on the tops of small flags or other such objects (the purpose of the shaft is something attached to the side of it and so the shaft is finished off at the end with a small, rounded cap). It could be decorative or functional for all I know. I see that you've also got a male-to-male coaxial cable coupler (might even still work, but probably not worth trying).

If you want to get some more thorough data about your digs, you can organise your finds according to where you found them and then sort each group based on depth. Presumably, objects at about the same depth in the same area should have been deposited at about the same time, so you could build a small picture of what was going on in that place at the time your finds were deposited. It's often hard to peg an exact year (or even a range of only a few years), but placement and depth can at least relate the finds to each other. The more relationships you can establish between the items you dig, the more you can say about each one. I find that detective work is often just as much fun as digging valuables.

 

[trikeman72]

Hey could the silver thing below the scissors be the hilt of a dagger or some type of knife? Can't tell if there's a hole in center for a blade to go but I thought I'd say first thing that came to mind lol

 

[Talon]

That's certainly one of the more eclectic piles of dug goods that I've seen. Some fun things to put on the hobby rooms wall!

 

[FlyingProspector]

Definitely some random items indeed. The handle thingy does have a slit in it for a blade to go in. Too bad I didn't find the whole piece. And thanks for the depth advice, as I am very new to the hobby and my little toy metal detector isn't all that great. Too bad I didn't find the coaxial coupler a few months ago when I needed one, lol, there's $1.29 I didn't need to spend.

 

[Critical Recovery]

Definitely some random items indeed. The handle thingy does have a slit in it for a blade to go in. Too bad I didn't find the whole piece. And thanks for the depth advice, as I am very new to the hobby and my little toy metal detector isn't all that great. Too bad I didn't find the coaxial coupler a few months ago when I needed one, lol, there's $1.29 I didn't need to spend.

I suspect that this is because the handle is an alloy and the blade was a more high carbon content steel, leading to corrosion.

And if it is what you USE and you are recovering stuff, it is not a toy.
YOU are the only person to decide the effectiveness of your machine. brand snobbery has no place here, don't let people do that to you.
Happy Hunting. ;-)