Hello All,
My pal Kindafoundabuckle and I headed off this afternoon to hunt for a CW site we've been trying to find for a while. We got on the road for a little detectin' at the field we'd picked as the third choice for where the site might be (the first two spots we didn't find any relics on previous hunts
) When we got to the field we did our customary all-metal mode walk through. (We had bought a pair of rechargeable, clip-on walkie talkies so that we could communicate with each other from a half a mile away.) After hunting there for about two hours in this huge field, I was starting to wonder if we were in the wrong spot yet again. (Usually our research leads us to several possible locations, all in close proximity. We've been quite fortunate this year in finding sites, but I was afraid we were headed for a dry spell.) I had been listening to the frequency of iron readings (not that frequent so far), and double-checking each decent all-metal mode hit against a slightly higher discrimination. At that point, I hadn't had much luck as far as old brass, lead, or copper finding its way into my pouch. The shadows had gotten long, and I knew we were nearing the end of the hunt. Then all of a sudden KFB radioed in "I've got iron. Lots of it." I made my way in his direction across the field. By the time I got there, he had the first minieball in his hand. We started giggling like schoolgirls! I would like to say that finding this site was easy, but it certainly wasn't. Our first several hunts in the other locations were no picnic. It has been sweltering outside this summer in KY, and finding these relics today was more of a relief than anything! So we concentrated in that area where the first minie came up, circling outward from where the find was made. I got a minie about 15 minutes later, plus a piece of unidentifiable lead. KFB then shouted "I've got silver!" I ran like a rabid dog over to where he was, and he held out a cut Spanish silver coin! It looks like a quarter of an 8-reales piece. He looked like a bull moose on crack the way he did the happy dance!
We kept on hunting, picking up another minie or two. Then I got a faint signal that sounded just better than iron on my 1266-X. At about 7 inches came this 1853 Half Dime! I was surprised to see this little coin--it has been about 8 years since I last found one. I had split the clod of dirt I had in half, then in half again (the clod was getting so small I wondered what in the world I had, but the signal at that point was sweet). So we both had an awesome piece of silver in our pockets at that point. It had started to get dark. We made our way slowly back towards the car, picking up some bits of lead. Not wanting to leave, I was taking my sweet time--certainly not detecting in a straight line--and just identifying each find by touch. After we got in the car, KFB said "hold out your hand." Sitting there in the dark, I felt a heavy flat metal disk drop into my palm. I asked him what it was and he said he couldn't see it when he dug it out, but he knew it was a big coin. I turned on the light in the car, and it was a large copper coin. Even after cleaning it up a bit at home with a toothbrush, we can't see the date, but it appears to be of the Coronet Head type.
So here are the photos. Funny thing that we got three coins today, and only one had a visible date. The finds were spread out over a large area, so I'm not entirely certain in retrospect that we're directly on top of the site yet. (There are many old house sites on a 19th c. map of the area, and sometimes CW relics are found around these.) I do think we're pretty darn close though.
Here's KFB's Spanish silver. As you can see from the last photo, the coin must have originally been bigger than the Large Cent in diameter.
Here's a close-up of the Half Dime:
And all of the relics, minus a few of my minies I had already started to clean when KFB took the photo.
Regards,
Buckleboy
My pal Kindafoundabuckle and I headed off this afternoon to hunt for a CW site we've been trying to find for a while. We got on the road for a little detectin' at the field we'd picked as the third choice for where the site might be (the first two spots we didn't find any relics on previous hunts
) When we got to the field we did our customary all-metal mode walk through. (We had bought a pair of rechargeable, clip-on walkie talkies so that we could communicate with each other from a half a mile away.) After hunting there for about two hours in this huge field, I was starting to wonder if we were in the wrong spot yet again. (Usually our research leads us to several possible locations, all in close proximity. We've been quite fortunate this year in finding sites, but I was afraid we were headed for a dry spell.) I had been listening to the frequency of iron readings (not that frequent so far), and double-checking each decent all-metal mode hit against a slightly higher discrimination. At that point, I hadn't had much luck as far as old brass, lead, or copper finding its way into my pouch. The shadows had gotten long, and I knew we were nearing the end of the hunt. Then all of a sudden KFB radioed in "I've got iron. Lots of it." I made my way in his direction across the field. By the time I got there, he had the first minieball in his hand. We started giggling like schoolgirls! I would like to say that finding this site was easy, but it certainly wasn't. Our first several hunts in the other locations were no picnic. It has been sweltering outside this summer in KY, and finding these relics today was more of a relief than anything! So we concentrated in that area where the first minie came up, circling outward from where the find was made. I got a minie about 15 minutes later, plus a piece of unidentifiable lead. KFB then shouted "I've got silver!" I ran like a rabid dog over to where he was, and he held out a cut Spanish silver coin! It looks like a quarter of an 8-reales piece. He looked like a bull moose on crack the way he did the happy dance! We kept on hunting, picking up another minie or two. Then I got a faint signal that sounded just better than iron on my 1266-X. At about 7 inches came this 1853 Half Dime! I was surprised to see this little coin--it has been about 8 years since I last found one. I had split the clod of dirt I had in half, then in half again (the clod was getting so small I wondered what in the world I had, but the signal at that point was sweet). So we both had an awesome piece of silver in our pockets at that point. It had started to get dark. We made our way slowly back towards the car, picking up some bits of lead. Not wanting to leave, I was taking my sweet time--certainly not detecting in a straight line--and just identifying each find by touch. After we got in the car, KFB said "hold out your hand." Sitting there in the dark, I felt a heavy flat metal disk drop into my palm. I asked him what it was and he said he couldn't see it when he dug it out, but he knew it was a big coin. I turned on the light in the car, and it was a large copper coin. Even after cleaning it up a bit at home with a toothbrush, we can't see the date, but it appears to be of the Coronet Head type.
So here are the photos. Funny thing that we got three coins today, and only one had a visible date. The finds were spread out over a large area, so I'm not entirely certain in retrospect that we're directly on top of the site yet. (There are many old house sites on a 19th c. map of the area, and sometimes CW relics are found around these.) I do think we're pretty darn close though.
Here's KFB's Spanish silver. As you can see from the last photo, the coin must have originally been bigger than the Large Cent in diameter.
Here's a close-up of the Half Dime:
And all of the relics, minus a few of my minies I had already started to clean when KFB took the photo.
Regards,
Buckleboy
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