BuckleDad's First Silver! Virginia Detecting Trip
Hello All,
Went to VA to dig with my dad and my mentor. Due to his wife's health, my mentor couldn't make time to dig, although we did get a chance to sit down and swap stories and catch up a bit.
Wanted to track down one of the earliest houses on the creek my dad lives on. After talking with several folks, one of whom was 90 years old, I managed to find the correct property. The only known photograph of the log house is here (taken in the 1930s):
There was a newer house built on the same site in the 40s (abandoned now). We got permission to detect the area, and BuckleDad dug his first silver, a 1917 Mercury Dime. Here is a photo of dad taken with the same perspective as the old photo, standing right where the log house stood, and grinning big with his first silver coin.
Pretty soon I had a dime of my own (1943) and we both had a couple wheats and zinc jar lids.
I was really hoping for at least one early Western Frontier relic from Appalachia. Even though I lived in VA for years, I had never dug a real colonial relic from the VA soil. This was because I had "Civil War Fever" when I lived there. Also, all of the yards were virgin, so I spent a great deal of time hunting yards and doing very, very well.
I got a piece of a brass spoon that had a scallop shell design on the bowl. Then I got a deep, great hit, and out of the rocky soil I pulled a silver gilded complete shoe buckle! This really made my day, since I've never found an intact one (only pieces). But the highlight of the trip was putting the coil to the soil with my dad.
Hope all of you are having a great summer,
Buck
Hello All,
Went to VA to dig with my dad and my mentor. Due to his wife's health, my mentor couldn't make time to dig, although we did get a chance to sit down and swap stories and catch up a bit.
Wanted to track down one of the earliest houses on the creek my dad lives on. After talking with several folks, one of whom was 90 years old, I managed to find the correct property. The only known photograph of the log house is here (taken in the 1930s):
There was a newer house built on the same site in the 40s (abandoned now). We got permission to detect the area, and BuckleDad dug his first silver, a 1917 Mercury Dime. Here is a photo of dad taken with the same perspective as the old photo, standing right where the log house stood, and grinning big with his first silver coin.
Pretty soon I had a dime of my own (1943) and we both had a couple wheats and zinc jar lids.
I was really hoping for at least one early Western Frontier relic from Appalachia. Even though I lived in VA for years, I had never dug a real colonial relic from the VA soil. This was because I had "Civil War Fever" when I lived there. Also, all of the yards were virgin, so I spent a great deal of time hunting yards and doing very, very well.
I got a piece of a brass spoon that had a scallop shell design on the bowl. Then I got a deep, great hit, and out of the rocky soil I pulled a silver gilded complete shoe buckle! This really made my day, since I've never found an intact one (only pieces). But the highlight of the trip was putting the coil to the soil with my dad.
Hope all of you are having a great summer,
Buck
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