I have some new CW goodies

[smokeythecat]

I had to get to the pharmacy to pick up something, and since I had to go out there ANYWAY, I detoured to my best spot (at the moment), and decided to try to "think out of the box" and see if I could find ANYTHING! Finds are getting scarcer and most are deep.

So here we go:



Anyone know what the brass sheet item with punched out stars is?

 

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[smokeythecat]

Thanks all. A lighter part, an old one, makes a lot of sense. The stars are precisely the same, so absolutely post Civil War.

You know, that first musket ball, and you go nuts. The first minie ball, same thing. The first Confederate button, also a jump up and down time.

I had to sell the bulk of my collection once upon a time ago to support my kids when they were little. I don't regret it. I was made to play in the dirt! Finding stuff was just a bonus!

 

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[Locke]

That’s an amazing haul!! Love the buckle!!

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Hand warmer is possible. Maybe something to hold tobacco? There is a fair amount of stuff from 1890 to about 1920 on the site, with some scattered items like the Merc dime also.

My first thought was the top portion of a kids money safe.
Like the ones they used to give out at the bank when you opened a savings account in the early 1900s.


In reference to your statement: "I forgot to mention, in the old, old days we could find half a dozen "USA" buttons in a day, or several Union buckles in a day, or 50 bullets in a day or more and on and on. Now we're hunting scraps and missed items. These two farms we have now are special because no one knew to look there, the history books had the troop locations off by a mile." - smokeythecat

I completely agree with you in this regard my friend.
For the 'new' detectorist just starting out in this hobby, who have visions of finding the same quality relics that you did years 30 - 40 years ago is somewhat unrealistic. I think there are still amazing relics yet to be found out there, but they're going to be much harder to find. This is mainly because most of the 'prime sites in plain view' have been hunted to death or have been built on. It's only going to be through in-depth research, improved technology in metal detectors and by looking 'outside the box' that folks will be challenged to find what you did 40+ years ago.
Dave

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Excellent finds !

 

[smokeythecat]

Antiquarian, you are dead on. And I think the bank thing may be correct. I'll have to search the net and see if I can see "antique coin bank" listed somewhere and get an id. That takes a long time. In the good old days, - and all this is absolutely true - we'd find 25 arrowheads in a day and maybe an ax on Indian sites, my best day on a Rev War site produced 28 musket balls, some go-withs, that is, stuff, and 12 marked "USA" or other regimental buttons.

Once I went to the cornfield at Antietam, decades before it was absorbed into the park and dug 15 minies, half of the bullets Confederate.

Even as late as 1991 I went with a friend to an area not far from the Battle of Saylor's Creek in VA, a few miles from the park, and we got about 200 minies, Spencer cartridges, eagle buttons and two Confederate buttons in 2 hours.

No fooling. These days we are either hunting scraps, or looking for a home site that is long gone we can dig in or a camp the historians got wrong and we can dig. My two farms are the latter. The troops were supposed to be a mile or more away. The historians got it wrong. And with so much land, briars, hills, really hot soil, it's still a hard dig.

 

[washingtonian]

That plate is awesome! Wow! Nice going.