(TL;DR) Amazing weekend, great finds and great company!

Isaac

Hero Member
Oct 11, 2013
773
1,335
Fairfax, Virginia
🥇 Banner finds
3
Detector(s) used
Whites MXT All Pro, Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
My friend Luke (pacivilwarluke) and his neighbor and childhood friend Mark came down this weekend to do some metal detecting! Luke comes down quite a bit, but this was Mark's first time tagging along, and we were all really excited. It was a long month for me, so it helped to get my mind off of some things.

They came down Friday night and we were off detecting Saturday morning. I had the first site planned out for a while, it was in the perfect spot to find Civil War relics. I was so hopeful that we could at least get a few bullets and a couple buttons here, since it was in the middle of everything. Unfortunately for us, there was next to nothing there, I think we were beaten out many years ago by previous relic hunters.

We ended up promptly heading to our next site which was across the street from a known Civil War hospital site. As expected, this was hunted pretty well too. We were about to leave after 30 minutes when Mark calls us and shows us a dropped Williams Regulation bullet he found atop a slight knoll near the road. This was also his first Civil War bullet! We quickly slowed down and started hitting deep stuff other guys missed. Not much was found, but it was enough to keep us going for about an hour. Luke got three musket balls, his first Williams Cleaner and a Williams cleaner base, I got a pulled and rammed Williams Cleaner and a poncho grommet, and Mark got a brass tip from a bayonet scabbard tip.

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After that, we got lunch and headed to the next site which was where I had the triple large cent day last month, I was saving it for them because I knew there was more there. All I can say about this site is it was very active in the colonial days. We park and almost immediately after Luke turns his detector, he runs over a complete OPEN WORK knee buckle frame, probably ca.1750. He was so excited, since it was his first one, and I was too, because I just knew this was going to continue to be extremely productive. I got an early brass horse tack buckle and then decided it would be a good idea to knock the next lot over, since I knew there was a 1750s homesite there. They demolished it in the 1970s and there's a house built about 10 years ago further back from where the 1750s house was. The owner was very hesitant to let me on the property, but I coaxed him into letting us try the bottom half of his property, which, luckily for us, was where I knew the most relics would probably be.

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We get into the lot and it started off quite slow. About 10 minutes in, I got a very small cuff button at less than an inch deep. I told them to help me clear this lot out and we started finding more stuff. I found a nice small late-colonial "Mickey mouse" lock. As it started to fizzle out, Luke began to chase the iron signals. He got on an iron stirrup (his first stirrup) and a piece of an early iron fireplace backing.

Mark decided to move on across the modern driveway leading to the new house to a sliver of ground between that driveway and the fence of the next door property. He yells to us "I think I've got a copper!" I confirmed it and congratulated him. It was a very toasted, dateless Matron Head large cent, but that doesn't matter. It was his first large copper! 2 minutes later, he yells again, "I got a ****ing Seated!" At this point I'm thinking, "are you ****ing kidding me?!" Luke and I run over to see it for ourselves and sure enough, it was a gorgeous 1837 Seated dime. That's not all though, Luke was in the midst of digging a hole when Mark yelled "Seated". In that hole was an early one-piece convex Artillery button from the 1820s in beautiful condition! Another bucket lister for Luke!

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Things started to slow down after that, I began hitting near where Mark got the Seated dime and notice the incredible amount of bricks that are in the holes we are digging over here. I came to the conclusion there was a structure here, and when they moved the driveway over, they plowed up the foundation and scattered it around this area. There was also deep aluminum cans amidst the goodies. Luke strolls on over and, of course, instantly pulls up another coin, another toasted and date-less Matron Head large cent. At this point I was itching to find a coin of my own. It didn't last too long, however, because I pulled out an 1829 Matron Head large cent in pretty nice shape about 5 minutes later. After that, no more period coins surfaced, but I picked up a 1962 rosie, a spill consisting of a 1936 buffalo, a 1943 war nickel and a 1947 nickel, a silver ring from the 20th century and a beautiful 1840s patriotic suspender clip. Just before we left, I obtained permission across the street where my previous research noted a couple other promising areas for the next morning.

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Overall, Luke and Mark kicked my butt on Saturday. But, luckily for me, Sunday made up for it! It was so much fun for all of us and we were so excited for the next morning.

Sunday morning we woke up a little later, still fairly exhausted from yesterday, but very hopeful. We drove to the new site I obtained permission for the day before and I immediately got my first target, a fired .69 cal. Minnié Ball, not what I was expecting but certainly welcome. The next few targets were pieces of surface trash, which makes sense considering this is also a modern house. I got another deep(er) signal, this time reading like a wheat penny. I got to the signal and saw a green disk a bit larger than a wheat penny from about 5" or so. When I wiped it off and saw "LIARD", I already knew I had a 1650s French Liard in my hands. The obverse was completely slick, and the reverse was almost slick, but luckily for me, the "B" mint mark in between the three fleur-de-lis told me it dates between 1655-1658, making this my oldest coin by about 40 years. Luke was next to me when making this find, and I think he was more excited than I was!

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I walk three or so steps forward and get another deep(er) signal, this one reading like total crap. On the MXT all pro, it was a really crummy +0/+2/+4 at about 3" deep. Despite it being a repulsive VDI, it was not on the surface, so I went for it. Luke was right next to me and when we saw it entangled in thin plant roots, we both thought it was just another pull tab for a split second before realizing IT WAS NOT. I wiped the band and it was clearly thin, OLD gold. I wiped the inside of the band to see if there was any markings or inscriptions, and I found the initials A.F. and A.V.M. on the inside in typical 18th century font. It's also very "buttery" colored so it's probably made up of a high karat gold. This leads me to believe this is in fact an 18th century gold wedding band. I ran to the car and put these two finds in, while trying to contain my excitement. I've been wanting colonial gold jewelry for a long time, it was near the top of my bucket list, and I finally found one!

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Luke and I started swinging again and we pulled out buttons, fancy shoe buckle pieces, and other relics. I got a nice musket thumb plate -
my first one of those - it was a few yards away from the gold ring. Luke got a well-circulated 1785 Connecticut copper in this area as well, an uncommon find for Virginia. It seems as across the street had mostly early 1800s stuff, where as this site has mostly mid-late 1700s stuff. Mark was in the back of the property, keeping to himself, until he walked back to the front where we were, with a find in his hand. Luke and I just began to salivate as he held a late 1700s watch winder in front of our faces. With a little bit of research we figured the text to be German, and it translated to "The Three Omens" with a depiction of 3 children around a fountain(?). This piece may be unique, and we were certainly envious of it.

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When the front area started to dry up, we headed to the back where Mark found the watch winder. We immediately started getting more targets, mostly from the 18th century. Buttons, buckle pieces, and furniture pieces started flying out of the ground. Mark got a nice 1803 Draped Bust large cent back here, and Luke got a small piece colonial silver with a four-petaled flower on it, of which we don't know the exact origin. I mopped up the buttons, finding about a dozen back here. As I was swinging on my way back to the front where Mark and Luke were wandering, I got a nice clean +81/+83 signal about 3" deep and found myself a beautiful 1771 King George III half penny.

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At this point we only had about an hour of swinging time left, and I wanted to hit the area Luke found his knee buckle one last time. I got a scratchy large high tone at about 6" expecting a can, since I found many in this area. It turned out to be my first sterling silver match safe! I was pretty close to the 1750s house site which was torn down, and I attributed it to the families initials who lived there! I'm guessing it dates to the late 1800s. However, it was missing the top, and I was hopeful that they would be nearby. In the next 15 minutes, I found the other pieces about 6' away. That was amazing in itself! Luke got a beautiful colonial bit boss with gilding here also! After that, we had to leave, but not without a pouch full of treasures for all three of us.

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It was an amazing experience to be able to hunt a productive site with good friends! Hunting it by myself wouldn't be nearly as fun and I am glad they were able to come down here and find stuff! It's truly a blessing to be able to do this and to have friends who share the same passions as myself! Thanks for reading everyone, and happy hunting!

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Upvote 19

joeyfresh

Bronze Member
Dec 19, 2006
2,283
1,399
Colonial Virginia
🥇 Banner finds
2
Detector(s) used
XP Deus
Teknetics T2
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Outstanding finds Isaac. The old gold ring is high on my list as well and you lucky dog beat me to it!!
 

digging440yrs

Gold Member
Dec 5, 2012
5,946
4,410
UPSTATE NEW YORK
Detector(s) used
1970 COMPASS-
WHITES SILVER EAGLE-
WHITES DFX, 4X6DD COIL, 6X8DD COIL, 950 COIL, 10X12SEF COIL-
GARRETT PRO POINTER AT, GARRETT AT PRO , MINELAB EXPLORER SE with 8.5x12.5 Cors coil
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Heck of a hunt---pound that place :icon_thumleft:
 

against the wind

Gold Member
Jul 27, 2015
24,797
24,976
Port Allegheny, Pennsylvania
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
E-trac, Excalibur, XP Deus, & CTX 3030.
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Wow, that was a lot of reading.
Congrats on sharing a few hunts with good friends.
Congrats on making some really cool finds, and thank you for sharing your adventures.
 

Scrappy

Gold Member
Mar 6, 2014
9,204
14,019
17th century
🥇 Banner finds
7
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030 & XP Deus
Primary Interest:
Other
Great ring. That's a difficult find and a signal most wouldn't dig. Congrats
 

bill from lachine

Gold Member
Oct 30, 2011
22,616
88,899
Quebec
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
Isaac,

You and your buddies aced it on the hunts....that old gold band and match safe are sweet finds.

Regards + HH

Bill
 

MadTom

Sr. Member
Dec 6, 2016
299
334
Vermont
Detector(s) used
Bandido umax
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
The ring is just to cool! Wonder if you find out who the ring belonged to by tracing the history of the site.
 

Mifarmer

Sr. Member
Jun 30, 2014
253
448
Barry county
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT PRO x2 XP DEUS!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Wow I would probably head out to the pub and celebrate over those finds!
 

WHADIFIND

Gold Member
Apr 9, 2012
12,032
37,872
South of the Mason-Dixon Line
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
4
Detector(s) used
Garrett AT-MAX
Garrett AT-PRO,
Garrett Groundhog,
Pro-Pointer,

Jack Hammer!
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
A wonderful feature I daresay! Excellent work!

Beautiful story, finds and times!

WTG!
 

OP
OP
Isaac

Isaac

Hero Member
Oct 11, 2013
773
1,335
Fairfax, Virginia
🥇 Banner finds
3
Detector(s) used
Whites MXT All Pro, Garrett AT Pro
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Outstanding finds Isaac. The old gold ring is high on my list as well and you lucky dog beat me to it!!

Thanks Joey!!! A lot of what you've found is still on my list as well. One of these days we HAVE to get out together.

Great ring. That's a difficult find and a signal most wouldn't dig. Congrats

Thanks! The only reason I would've dug it is because I just dug the French coin and it was definitely non-ferrous. I was elated to say the least.

Isaac,

You and your buddies aced it on the hunts....that old gold band and match safe are sweet finds.

Regards + HH

Bill

Thanks Bill!

The ring is just to cool! Wonder if you find out who the ring belonged to by tracing the history of the site.

Thanks Tom! I've tried but so far, no luck, it may have been a passer-by or visitor. I'm still looking though. :D

Wow I would probably head out to the pub and celebrate over those finds!

We celebrated by going to IHOP. LOL! Thanks!

A wonderful feature I daresay! Excellent work!

Beautiful story, finds and times!

WTG!

Thanks!
 

montcalm

Full Member
Jan 31, 2015
164
397
Lévis, Quebec
Detector(s) used
Tesoro shark,Tesoro Cortes, ExcaliburII,Garett Atpro
Primary Interest:
Other
Awesome bunch of finds Cong! Good story coming with it . Your friend are lucky to have you.
 

Oct 5, 2014
31,886
35,424
Massachusetts
🥇 Banner finds
1
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Garrett: AT Pro, AT Gold & Infinium; Minelab: Explorer SE, II; Simplex; Tesoro: Tejon & Outlaw; White's: V3i
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Congratulations on the killer coin, jewelry and relic hunt! :notworthy:
 

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