Steve in PA
Gold Member
- Jul 5, 2010
- 9,583
- 14,135
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 4
- Detector(s) used
- Fisher F75, XP Deus, Equinox 600, Fisher 1270
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
I went on a DWV hunt Sunday (Digging With Vino). Actually, after communicating with George regarding his recent sword belt find, he invited me over to Philadelphia to help him dig and sift a suspected trash pit and surface hunt the property of the 1793 house where he found it. George was hoping to find the keeper to the buckle, which I understand he JUST FOUND this morning. Here is a pic of George picking through the siftings and a picture of the house on the property.
Well, as soon as we got into the “trash pit”, I recognized from my bottle digging days that it was just a shallow surface dump of furnace ashes and 1920s era broken bottles. This was confirmed by digging a test hole which in which we hit undisturbed sub-soil about one foot deep. At this point we turned to surface hunting, but George and PA Sleuth had already hit the place twice, and the finds were sparse and pretty much all modern. George did get 4 or 5 Indians in one hole which he gave to the property owner who had showed up unexpectedly and indicated that she wanted everything we find. I got a pretty nice 1865 Indian head.
From there we went to several more old properties and finished the day at a house that was built in 1754 that George had recently got permission for, but had not hunted yet. Although the yard was rather small we both got a number of finds, and although they didn’t date to the 18[SUP]th[/SUP] century, it was fun digging. George dug a beautiful silver cufflink with a flower pattern and a silver quarter. I got a ball button, Indian head, dateless SLQ, and probably my most interesting find – a large pewter medallion that was about 8 inches deep. It has a lot of detail, but I only did some preliminary cleaning until I can get it identified (hopefully). Then I will decide how I want to proceed with it. For the time being it is in a plastic bag with wet dirt from the yard where it was dug.
George on sifter duty
This house looks like it's holding all kind of secrets
View attachment 1214778
I got some scrap brass, copper, and lead to add to my scrap metal buckets.
My Coins. Was hoping for some large cents or older coppers, but it was not to be on this day. The places we hunted were old enough, but neither of us got a copper.
Lead toys were plentiful though.
More of my recoveries
I am most curious about this pewter medallion. It was found in the yard of a house built in 1754 and it has obviously been in the ground a long time judging by the condition. i only gave it a preliminary cleaning until it is (hopefully) identified. If it is something important, I will try to be very careful cleaning it. I have heard that Lime Away will remove/loosen the encrustations, but I have never tried it on pewter. This medallion is 1.54" diameter or 39.1 mm.
Well, as soon as we got into the “trash pit”, I recognized from my bottle digging days that it was just a shallow surface dump of furnace ashes and 1920s era broken bottles. This was confirmed by digging a test hole which in which we hit undisturbed sub-soil about one foot deep. At this point we turned to surface hunting, but George and PA Sleuth had already hit the place twice, and the finds were sparse and pretty much all modern. George did get 4 or 5 Indians in one hole which he gave to the property owner who had showed up unexpectedly and indicated that she wanted everything we find. I got a pretty nice 1865 Indian head.
From there we went to several more old properties and finished the day at a house that was built in 1754 that George had recently got permission for, but had not hunted yet. Although the yard was rather small we both got a number of finds, and although they didn’t date to the 18[SUP]th[/SUP] century, it was fun digging. George dug a beautiful silver cufflink with a flower pattern and a silver quarter. I got a ball button, Indian head, dateless SLQ, and probably my most interesting find – a large pewter medallion that was about 8 inches deep. It has a lot of detail, but I only did some preliminary cleaning until I can get it identified (hopefully). Then I will decide how I want to proceed with it. For the time being it is in a plastic bag with wet dirt from the yard where it was dug.
George on sifter duty
This house looks like it's holding all kind of secrets
View attachment 1214778
I got some scrap brass, copper, and lead to add to my scrap metal buckets.
My Coins. Was hoping for some large cents or older coppers, but it was not to be on this day. The places we hunted were old enough, but neither of us got a copper.
Lead toys were plentiful though.
More of my recoveries
I am most curious about this pewter medallion. It was found in the yard of a house built in 1754 and it has obviously been in the ground a long time judging by the condition. i only gave it a preliminary cleaning until it is (hopefully) identified. If it is something important, I will try to be very careful cleaning it. I have heard that Lime Away will remove/loosen the encrustations, but I have never tried it on pewter. This medallion is 1.54" diameter or 39.1 mm.
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