What an amazing day - gold coin/colonial silver and copper/US box plate & more!!

[Bill D. (VA)]

Just got permission for a new colonial site that I've had my eye on for some time. No, this is not the holy grail site I referred to in my last post, but the way it turned out it might as well have been. As I was driving down the lane approaching the house a beautiful bald eagle flew directly in front of my truck so things were starting out right. Then the first signal I got when I walked out in the field was a NY cuff button that fell apart in my hand, but that was still a good sign. After that I wandered around for a bit without finding much, then ventured to another part of the property where I found a musketball, then a 3-ringer and an eagle button not long after. So I decided to hunker down in that spot for a while. As I usually do at colonial sites I dig all non-ferrous targets as many of the tombacs, other small buttons, buckle pieces, etc, often come in quite low on the conductivity scale. As a result I end up digging loads of lead buck shot which I was certainly doing yesterday. I got another one of those hits, maybe just a tad higher on the scale of my F75, and it was a very consistent 27. I knew it was very shallow so I stuck my shovel in at a low angle, then flipped the 2-inch scraping upside down. Immediately I saw a beautiful gold coin staring back at me. I was lucky I didn't hit it with the shovel. I eventually had the nerve to actually touch it, and it turned out to be a gorgeous 1852 one dollar gold piece. I was stunned to say the least. Took me a while to get my wits about myself, then I started hunting the same area a little more slowly. I think I dug one more bullet, then got another nice deep sounding bullet signal. Dug a fairly deep hole (12") and the target was still in the bottom. Finally I got it out and was looking at the back of what I thought was a large pewter spoon. But it was quite heavy. I flipped it over and started scraping the wet dirt out with my fingers when that magical "US" started to appear and I realized I had just unearthed my first US boxplate complete with lead backing. What a hunt this was turning out to be! Later in the day I found a nice piece of cut silver which completed the trifecta. I also dug a nice assortment of other colonial and CW relics including a colonial hoe I pulled from a trash pit. When I was cleaning the finds this afternoon I noticed that what I thought was another beat up NY button turned out to be a Mass coat, also a first for me. And to top things off I thought I saw some writing around the edge of one of the large flat buttons, and after putting it in a warm hydrogen peroxide bath for a while I could see the word "Carolus" so I knew I had dug a spanish colonial copper. Anyway, it was an incredible day that I won't soon forget. This is probably my best hunt ever aside from the 2 days I found the twin hammered silver caches 4 years ago. HH to all!

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[dwayne sueno]

dang!
that last picture is a banner shot if i ever saw one.
great hunt. what a fantastic site.

[CrazySlasher]

my god

[MikesDiggins]

Awesome! Banner day!

[ticm]

Wow!!!!!!

[gmanlight]

Not sure there is enough room on the Banner for more gold.
Oh well hop on up .

[Generic_Lad]

Wow, I can only dream of a day like that

Nice finds

[metalev4]

Definitely Banner worthy, you have my vote.
-Evan

[CRUSADER]

AMAZING day is right (my vote is in)

[smcdmc]

Banner!!!

[Neil in West Jersey]

That is a great day of digging! Is there any more room on top for gold coins?

[oldsalty19]

beautiful gold coin

[Tony (NC)]

I'm guessing this was a day you will not soon forget! Congratulations my friend!

[Iron Patch]

A high better than drugs ain't it! I dug my best and most valuable silver coin in much the same way you did the gold and I too was pretty lucky I didn't smoke it.

I have three fields I'm anxious to hit this Spring, and two I've been waiting to do for years. If the results are anywhere close to that I'd call it a successful Spring.

[fyrffytr1]

My day would have ended with that gold coin because I would have had to go home and change!

[jewelerguy]

Holy Cow what hunt! that is nothing short of awesome. congrats!

[joeyfresh]

Outstanding Just another day in the life of Bill D.

My banner vote is in

[CladMagnet]

WOW!!!JUST WOW!!!!!

[DMN]

Quite the little spot of gold, Bill. That's a nice and difficult find to make. Hardest thing to find next to a three cent piece.
And, since gold rarely misses the banner, your little dot should do the same. Congrats.

BTW, looks like a nice spot. Keep showing those superb finds.

[Daedalus]

This is just awesome ! Nice going on the Gold Coin .
I think you have found a very good spot to be hunting at.

Good Luck on more finds .