Epic colonial hunt

[smokeythecat]

My Tesoro Cibola has been feeling neglected lately, after all it's just a turn and go machine. One frequency, no ground balance, no bells, no whistles, but it has found two gold coins in it's career! Well, it coerced me into getting it out of the back of the truck and back into the swing. We all have had a few places we would like to think had relics in them, but for one reason or another, never got around to digging there. Today that changed. This one little lot is in a very old neighborhood but has been infested with greenbriers in the 40 years I have been in the area. A few weeks ago, someone came and mowed the lot. Then they scraped it down with a dozer, I suppose they are going to build something there. It's out in the middle of nowhere, maybe it's just for sale, there were no for sale signs visible. Near a crossroads, it' has been inviting me there for awhile.

It's a small place. I got permission from someone on the site and spent about and hour and a half out.

Here are the results. This is the most colonial relics I have gotten in one day since forever. I also got couple horseshoes, misc. iron which I tossed, some bits and pieces of copper something or others and a few of those little brass tacks to put on furniture. No shoe buckle pieces which was kind of odd. There was oyster shell around and some broken black glass. I was in kind of a hurry, the landscaper will be here any minute now. Have to meet him to go over some upcoming work.

The Spanish pieces of 8 are #5 and #6 of my entire digging career. The soil is very good there, and there is detail on all of the coppers. The tombac buttons look like new! One blow hole French and Indian war period button, four colonial coppers, I haven't looked too carefully at them yet. The last picture is of the coppers.

Fun, fun, fun. Tomorrow Civil War detecting.
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[Professor of Engineering]

Outstanding Relic Hunt!

 

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[joeyfresh]

I need to know more about those coppers. I have been digging colonial sites exclusively for over ten years and have never found coppers in that condition. Incredible!! Is it a cleaning process you do? Please fill me in.

 

[ARC]

Wow... been a long time since I have seen a cut like that... Textbook.

Well done.

 

[smokeythecat]

Two are hard to see. Other two came out great. The soil there is very mild and they were found in a small area which looks like some lime or ash or something was in the ground with them and helped preserve them. Oyster shell will do that also. Lots of oyster shells here too. I get this effect on great occasion. Once in NY state a long time ago I got some "USA" Rev War buttons from the same kind of conditions that looked literally like they were made yesterday! Only happens under very special conditions and almost never.

 

[joeyfresh]

Even in trash pits loaded with oyster shells coppers around here come out oxidized. Very kind soil you have

 

[ironhorse]

pump the brakes!!!
you're gonna go out of control if you don't slow down some!
Wow Smokey, I guess I can say you smoked it again, great finds!
All the stuff from that era is so interesting to me, nice job!

 

[VTColonialDigger]

Wow! What a crazy awesome day! Any colonial detectorist's dream hunt!

 

[smokeythecat]

Thanks. I had the week off and the weather has been almost reasonable, no way I'm binge watching all 8 years of "24" in one week. It will take two weeks. BTW I do not have brakes. I went out to the truck and retrieved the other two coins. They are both early American. These were found about 75' away from the good looking ones and are considerably more pitted. The half round thing I don't what what it is. Half a button? It's from yesterday. I have a very fresh smelly coating of Renaissance wax on them which makes them appear better than they really are. But I like it! Best day for coppers for me was 5 back about 1989 from a colonial tavern about 20 miles from here. At that site 4 of 5 coppers would be garbage, the last one looking like it was made very recently, go figure. Too many sites, not enough days! I don't know the intricacies of these coins, maybe someone can chime in on an ID of these two.

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[joeyfresh]

You should send your soil to the Smithsonian because if after 300 or so years those coppers don't tarnish badly in the ground then I think that soil is worth more than gold! You have me motivated to get out digging this weekend. Keep posting your unbelievable finds!!!

 

[rickb2202]

Nice job of reading the country ! What great finds!!!. If I was going to hunt a cw hut tomorrow, I wouldn't sleep a wink!!!!!. Good luck!!

 

[Silvermonkey]

Beautiful collection of finds Smokey! The pieces of silver are lovely, as are those coppers. I can't imagine pulling all of those colonial pieces out of the ground during a single hunt. It doesn't get better than that!

 

[smokeythecat]

Joeyfresh, I have gone the ultimate step of sending a coin from a couple weeks ago to PCGS for conservation. It's a Liberty Cap half cent. It came out the ground looking like one of those crusty Roman coins, the ones if cleaned properly look like there made yesterday. Because of that I'm hoping they can actually pull something off the coin, since it is encrusted, and maybe protected. I hope. They may just send it back with a note stating maybe next time.
I got a few of the Romans and some Andre's pencils and they work great. I got a coin from the salt water in 2011 from the wreck of the "Faithful Steward" that while green, has all the details on it! Another copper found less than 100' away was eroded so badly it was almost paper thin! Salt water! Go figure. I thought salt ate up copper coins. I know it devours clad pretty quickly. Unfortunately, I didn't do chemistry so have no clue why my two sites, some 40 miles apart have produced nice looking coppers, again 4 of 5 are not good, while most every other place produces garbage. I've found the same thing with Indian head cents. Some are so gone it's hard to tell what they were, another one from another site will just have a slick green sheen on it with little or NO pitting. My last 1865 was like that.

 

[Phishfindr]

A great start to the long weekend. Enjoy and congrats on those nice finds!

 

[sutphin]

CANT BEAT OLE COLONIAL RELICS>

 

[Carolina Tom]

You rock. Those little cut silvers are really something to behold.

I look forward to seeing your next set of finds. Congrats.

 

[smokeythecat]

Thank you all. I just realized I have a date on the larger one. "81". Which of course would be 1781. I am stoked. Eyes are burning holes in their sockets and I'm on another crazy dig tomorrow. I was in a hurry to post them, as this week off is ending quickly.

 

[HighVDI]

Awesome hunt! Congrats on those colonial treasures.

 

[Rookster]

Now We're metal detecting

 

[Relicific]

What an assortment of coppers
Congrats

 

[pa-dirt_nc-sand]

Huge congrats on an amazing hunt!!! Can you make out the all seeing eye on the other side of the Nova? The other coppers are great finds as well, but the cut silver looks like the day it was lost that is why I love finding silver coins! I'm still working on finding my first cut silver, I'm glad you've recovered 2 more for your collection. Big congrats!!!!!