Hello All,
My apologies to all for the late night post. Close to 20 hours of the last 48 have been spent detecting. But true to form, here's a great story and some fantastic finds. First off, something to listen to while you look at the post.
I got up yesterday morning and met Shanegalanag and hit the cane fields.
We knew that the fountain of Spanish Silver coming from our Colonial site would not last forever, so we decided to track down another spot in the morning. So we hit an old plantation property we have permission for hoping to find some goodies.
We split up and walked the cane fields searching for the Big House and any other structures on that vast farm. Eventually we ran across the row of tenant houses. We were hoping that there might be some mid-to-late 1800s finds underneath the modern crappe, but after I dug the 4th wheat cent I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. 
Here's Shane with one of his wheats and a cheesy grin. Massive fields out behind him. We had rough gridded the fields for hours with little to show but farmer-dropped coins. You do that much wandering around, and you get happy just to find a site.
After picking up a few marbles and digging some aluminum crappe I was ready to go and leave these for another day--or another decade. So we decided to spend our last two hours of daylight back at the Spanish Silver Field of Dreams. We got started and immediately were digging flat buttons. It was like coming home to a warm freshly baked pie.
After digging a few buttons, I got a nice can slaw signal and opened up a hole. The silty mud in the bottom of the hole was dense, and I took out a nice chunk, separating it in half and in half again until I had a small clod in my hand. I broke it in half once more, and saw a tiny silver coin staring me in the face.
I knew immediately that it was another half real.
This is the SIXTH Spanish silver from the site. The plow had done its work on this one, bending it into a Colonial Taco. I put the coin in my pouch without investigating the date or type and kept swinging.
Feeling the confidence that only someone with a spanish silver in their pocket can feel, I left Shane to clean up the scraps and headed towards a spot in the field that I had eyeballed a pipe stem or two on a previous hunt. I started right in gridding, digging can slaw and pieces of old melted lead. After a couple flat buttons came up, I was feeling much better about my choice. Then in the bottom of a cane row I got a great signal. When I picked up the button, I couldn't believe it. A Second War of 1812 Artillery button!
It's pretty beaten up by the fertilizer and the plow, but I'll take it gladly.
Darkness was falling, and after digging a few more targets we called it a day. When I got home, I investigated my finds, and to my surprise the half real was a pillars type rather than the usual bust type. I was thrilled to see the date of 1740, which makes this my oldest coin dug in 20 years of detecting.
Somehow I managed to get to sleep after that rush, then met up with Shane again before dawn to drive to the site by first light. Bolstered by my success with the 1740 Half Real the day before, we headed back to the Field of Dreams. We dug a few more buttons, and I got a Jew's Harp. The field was starting to thin out a good bit, and we were having to work hard for each target. By noon we decided to take a lunch break.
During a fantastic Cajun Lunch, we discussed our plans, and decided to take a drive to another property and look for an early house. When we got out on that massive property, we drove a while, hoping to eyeball some brick, pottery, or oyster shells, then when that failed we got out in the field and started swinging. We rough-gridded some of the field, and found a site. After I eyeballed a large marble, and Shane dug an old brass skeleton key, we knew it was late 1800s. I dug a V nickel, and a Catholic medallion. (I was actually angry that the nickel was a nickel and not a flat button.)
We piddled around for a while, then decided to spend the rest of our time back at the Field of Dreams again. :P
When we got out there, we decided to tightly grid a section that we had never done before. We picked up a few more flat buttons, more pipe stems, and some pottery shards.
We pause our regularly scheduled Canefield Bandits program to bring you a game called "Find the Colonial Clay Pipe Stem in the Sugar Cane Stubble."
Let me give you a hint. Those little things are hard to see!
Now back to the story... On the next cane row I dug a nice octagonal plantation token.
Then I got a great hit that I was sure would be a copper. When I flipped the soil over, I saw the flash of silver and thought 8Reales--
--but it was a Walking Liberty Half. My last Walker was dug in the 90s (although I have dug Seated Halves since), but that big silver is always a welcome sight.
I took ten steps and got another great signal, and dug this:
An 1892 Barber Dime. Thank you, Farmers, for dropping some goodies for us to find. Later on I dug a Buffalo Nickel in the middle of the field, and thanked the farmers again. I didn't mind digging some coins today of types that I haven't dug in years.
Here are my finds from the two days of detecting. Shane will either post his, or I'll add them to this post later on.
First off, I have to show you the Gaw Gag. Pack studs and pocketwatch parts (Gaw), Wheat pennies (Gag!), melted old lead, mardi gras doubloon 8), etc.:
MORE PHOTOS OF FINDS BELOW!!!
My apologies to all for the late night post. Close to 20 hours of the last 48 have been spent detecting. But true to form, here's a great story and some fantastic finds. First off, something to listen to while you look at the post.
I got up yesterday morning and met Shanegalanag and hit the cane fields.
We knew that the fountain of Spanish Silver coming from our Colonial site would not last forever, so we decided to track down another spot in the morning. So we hit an old plantation property we have permission for hoping to find some goodies.
We split up and walked the cane fields searching for the Big House and any other structures on that vast farm. Eventually we ran across the row of tenant houses. We were hoping that there might be some mid-to-late 1800s finds underneath the modern crappe, but after I dug the 4th wheat cent I was starting to feel sick to my stomach. Here's Shane with one of his wheats and a cheesy grin. Massive fields out behind him. We had rough gridded the fields for hours with little to show but farmer-dropped coins. You do that much wandering around, and you get happy just to find a site.
After picking up a few marbles and digging some aluminum crappe I was ready to go and leave these for another day--or another decade. So we decided to spend our last two hours of daylight back at the Spanish Silver Field of Dreams. We got started and immediately were digging flat buttons. It was like coming home to a warm freshly baked pie.
After digging a few buttons, I got a nice can slaw signal and opened up a hole. The silty mud in the bottom of the hole was dense, and I took out a nice chunk, separating it in half and in half again until I had a small clod in my hand. I broke it in half once more, and saw a tiny silver coin staring me in the face.
I knew immediately that it was another half real.
This is the SIXTH Spanish silver from the site. The plow had done its work on this one, bending it into a Colonial Taco. I put the coin in my pouch without investigating the date or type and kept swinging.Feeling the confidence that only someone with a spanish silver in their pocket can feel, I left Shane to clean up the scraps and headed towards a spot in the field that I had eyeballed a pipe stem or two on a previous hunt. I started right in gridding, digging can slaw and pieces of old melted lead. After a couple flat buttons came up, I was feeling much better about my choice. Then in the bottom of a cane row I got a great signal. When I picked up the button, I couldn't believe it. A Second War of 1812 Artillery button!
It's pretty beaten up by the fertilizer and the plow, but I'll take it gladly.
Darkness was falling, and after digging a few more targets we called it a day. When I got home, I investigated my finds, and to my surprise the half real was a pillars type rather than the usual bust type. I was thrilled to see the date of 1740, which makes this my oldest coin dug in 20 years of detecting.
Somehow I managed to get to sleep after that rush, then met up with Shane again before dawn to drive to the site by first light. Bolstered by my success with the 1740 Half Real the day before, we headed back to the Field of Dreams. We dug a few more buttons, and I got a Jew's Harp. The field was starting to thin out a good bit, and we were having to work hard for each target. By noon we decided to take a lunch break.
During a fantastic Cajun Lunch, we discussed our plans, and decided to take a drive to another property and look for an early house. When we got out on that massive property, we drove a while, hoping to eyeball some brick, pottery, or oyster shells, then when that failed we got out in the field and started swinging. We rough-gridded some of the field, and found a site. After I eyeballed a large marble, and Shane dug an old brass skeleton key, we knew it was late 1800s. I dug a V nickel, and a Catholic medallion. (I was actually angry that the nickel was a nickel and not a flat button.)
We piddled around for a while, then decided to spend the rest of our time back at the Field of Dreams again. :PWhen we got out there, we decided to tightly grid a section that we had never done before. We picked up a few more flat buttons, more pipe stems, and some pottery shards.
We pause our regularly scheduled Canefield Bandits program to bring you a game called "Find the Colonial Clay Pipe Stem in the Sugar Cane Stubble."
Let me give you a hint. Those little things are hard to see!
Now back to the story... On the next cane row I dug a nice octagonal plantation token.
Then I got a great hit that I was sure would be a copper. When I flipped the soil over, I saw the flash of silver and thought 8Reales--
--but it was a Walking Liberty Half. My last Walker was dug in the 90s (although I have dug Seated Halves since), but that big silver is always a welcome sight.
I took ten steps and got another great signal, and dug this:
An 1892 Barber Dime. Thank you, Farmers, for dropping some goodies for us to find.
Later on I dug a Buffalo Nickel in the middle of the field, and thanked the farmers again. I didn't mind digging some coins today of types that I haven't dug in years. Here are my finds from the two days of detecting. Shane will either post his, or I'll add them to this post later on.
First off, I have to show you the Gaw Gag. Pack studs and pocketwatch parts (Gaw), Wheat pennies (Gag!), melted old lead, mardi gras doubloon 8), etc.:
MORE PHOTOS OF FINDS BELOW!!!
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I had to say it. 
