Hello All,
We knew it was gonna get muddy and dicey around here due to the hurricane, so the week before Hurricane Laura hit, we went into high gear! This video is a compilation of our four most recent hunts.
Day 1 my wife ("Diggergirl") and I got out and happened to notice a new site as we were driving to an old spot. Completely randomly we decided to check it out. A quick eyeball determined that the pottery and glass was the right age for mid-1800s so we wasted no time in getting the detectors out of the truck! The first row I went down, I saw a convex button sticking out of the dirt:
The button turned out to be an 1830-40s French Navy "Equipages de Ligne" button. According to the book Le bouton uniforme français these buttons were "worn in silver by commissioners of the navy and administrative officers of the navy."
After some time had passed, I picked up a holed 1858-O half dime and my wife got an eagle button!!
There's nothing like seeing Seated Silver AND Civil War in the same hunt!
Then out of the blue she dug a piece of gold--which seems to be either the end of a crucifix or the back end of a mechanical pencil. Weight is very heavy at 6 grams, but it may be thin gold around a core of other metal. Low Karat, maybe 8 or 10K. Still pretty though!
So I did what any sensible person would do. I woke up the next day early to go out and dig again!!
Met up with my buddy Shangalang this time, and dug until lunch at the place where the 1820s Artillery Shako cap badge shield came up. On my very first row AGAIN I scored a great find. This time it was a blackened 1842 half dime.
Shangalang came up to me to show me some finds, which included a British copper farthing of William IV (1830s)! Then I picked up a really nice eagle cuff button.
He got the tip of a silver mechanical pencil which would've looked similar to this non-dug one:
Then I got a sweet beep and out popped a BEAUTIFUL 1857 Seated Dime!
Shang got worn out, and I was close to worn out...decided to take lunch and sit in some air conditioning and see if I could recover from the heat and gnats.
Afterward I decided to go to scout the surrounding fields from the spot my wife and I'd found together the day before. Sure enough I found another field that was loaded with iron. It seemed to be a work area, and it was full of big iron junk and had a decent amount of shredded aluminum can in it--but I kept at it and close to dark I popped out a coin! Getting down on my hands and knees I could see exactly as it was laying there, that it was my second ever Three Cent Silver!!
This one is the only year that was minted in New Orleans: 1851-O! The coin is beautiful--but it suffered in the ground from its 75% silver/25% copper composition that the early trimes were made from. So it is discolored from the iron and copper content. Even so, the details are first rate. After I dug the coin I decided to save the rest of the site to dig with my wife
When she and I could go dig again, the conditions were perfect to eyeball hunt (slight moisture for contrast in the ground vs. finds, and long light rays in the morning or evening)... so we decided to start out with a second round of Marble Harvest. I didn't film everything eyeballed this hunt (would've been waaaay too much to show!) but it set a record. In one long shift of eyeballing, before lunch, we amassed 85 marbles from the site! The grand total ended up being over 150 marbles found, along with a jar worth of glass beads (necklace, mardi gras, and rosary), dozens of bottles (few very old, but the wife likes them). I also love the 1880s era pocket watch case which was eyeballed, the sweet plantation token, barrel tap, clay pipe stems, and of course the really cool engineering society pin!
Also saw a creepy doll head
So near the end of the day we decided to save the rest of the eyeball rows for later and swing our detectors for a while, in the first site we'd found together. I got a cute little 30 VDI on the F75 and got a sweeeeet Louisiana Pelican Cuff Button!!! It's a LA 204-As2 in Tice (Backmark HYDE & GOODRICH / N-O). More scarce and desirable backmark which I hadn't dug on a cuff sized one yet!
We then went to the second field I'd found, where the 3 center came up, and beat it to death with little luck (man, is it full of iron and can!!). I did get a French, mid-1800s religious medallion:
On the slow drive out of the site, I saw a field that had scant signs so guess what we did the next day... We came back to dig the F(*&$K out of it!!
After a brief meet up with Shangalang, we went to try out our newest field. Dug around for 30 mins and Boom!! I dug the first silver. It was a half-cut seated dime that was so worn I thought it was half of a one real!
Then DG wasn't long in scoring with a sweet seated of her own!
I rounded a row and dug a beaten, bent seated half dime with a square nail hole right in the center.
Then I got what I thought was a flat button. Careful cleaning when home showed it to be an 1870s Indian. **Please someone tell me it's an 1877!!**
Then I decided to expand the area and got a solid 82 on the F75. I WISSSSHHHHHH I'd live dug it!!! Out flopped a Seated Quarter!!!
Don't Miss More Photos of Finds in the First Reply Below!
We knew it was gonna get muddy and dicey around here due to the hurricane, so the week before Hurricane Laura hit, we went into high gear! This video is a compilation of our four most recent hunts.
Day 1 my wife ("Diggergirl") and I got out and happened to notice a new site as we were driving to an old spot. Completely randomly we decided to check it out. A quick eyeball determined that the pottery and glass was the right age for mid-1800s so we wasted no time in getting the detectors out of the truck! The first row I went down, I saw a convex button sticking out of the dirt:
The button turned out to be an 1830-40s French Navy "Equipages de Ligne" button. According to the book Le bouton uniforme français these buttons were "worn in silver by commissioners of the navy and administrative officers of the navy."
After some time had passed, I picked up a holed 1858-O half dime and my wife got an eagle button!!
There's nothing like seeing Seated Silver AND Civil War in the same hunt!
Then out of the blue she dug a piece of gold--which seems to be either the end of a crucifix or the back end of a mechanical pencil. Weight is very heavy at 6 grams, but it may be thin gold around a core of other metal. Low Karat, maybe 8 or 10K. Still pretty though!
So I did what any sensible person would do. I woke up the next day early to go out and dig again!!
Met up with my buddy Shangalang this time, and dug until lunch at the place where the 1820s Artillery Shako cap badge shield came up. On my very first row AGAIN I scored a great find. This time it was a blackened 1842 half dime.
Shangalang came up to me to show me some finds, which included a British copper farthing of William IV (1830s)! Then I picked up a really nice eagle cuff button.
He got the tip of a silver mechanical pencil which would've looked similar to this non-dug one:
Then I got a sweet beep and out popped a BEAUTIFUL 1857 Seated Dime!
Shang got worn out, and I was close to worn out...decided to take lunch and sit in some air conditioning and see if I could recover from the heat and gnats.
Afterward I decided to go to scout the surrounding fields from the spot my wife and I'd found together the day before. Sure enough I found another field that was loaded with iron. It seemed to be a work area, and it was full of big iron junk and had a decent amount of shredded aluminum can in it--but I kept at it and close to dark I popped out a coin! Getting down on my hands and knees I could see exactly as it was laying there, that it was my second ever Three Cent Silver!!
This one is the only year that was minted in New Orleans: 1851-O! The coin is beautiful--but it suffered in the ground from its 75% silver/25% copper composition that the early trimes were made from. So it is discolored from the iron and copper content. Even so, the details are first rate. After I dug the coin I decided to save the rest of the site to dig with my wife
When she and I could go dig again, the conditions were perfect to eyeball hunt (slight moisture for contrast in the ground vs. finds, and long light rays in the morning or evening)... so we decided to start out with a second round of Marble Harvest. I didn't film everything eyeballed this hunt (would've been waaaay too much to show!) but it set a record. In one long shift of eyeballing, before lunch, we amassed 85 marbles from the site! The grand total ended up being over 150 marbles found, along with a jar worth of glass beads (necklace, mardi gras, and rosary), dozens of bottles (few very old, but the wife likes them). I also love the 1880s era pocket watch case which was eyeballed, the sweet plantation token, barrel tap, clay pipe stems, and of course the really cool engineering society pin!
Also saw a creepy doll head
So near the end of the day we decided to save the rest of the eyeball rows for later and swing our detectors for a while, in the first site we'd found together. I got a cute little 30 VDI on the F75 and got a sweeeeet Louisiana Pelican Cuff Button!!! It's a LA 204-As2 in Tice (Backmark HYDE & GOODRICH / N-O). More scarce and desirable backmark which I hadn't dug on a cuff sized one yet!
We then went to the second field I'd found, where the 3 center came up, and beat it to death with little luck (man, is it full of iron and can!!). I did get a French, mid-1800s religious medallion:
On the slow drive out of the site, I saw a field that had scant signs so guess what we did the next day... We came back to dig the F(*&$K out of it!!
After a brief meet up with Shangalang, we went to try out our newest field. Dug around for 30 mins and Boom!! I dug the first silver. It was a half-cut seated dime that was so worn I thought it was half of a one real!
Then DG wasn't long in scoring with a sweet seated of her own!
I rounded a row and dug a beaten, bent seated half dime with a square nail hole right in the center.
Then I got what I thought was a flat button. Careful cleaning when home showed it to be an 1870s Indian. **Please someone tell me it's an 1877!!**
Then I decided to expand the area and got a solid 82 on the F75. I WISSSSHHHHHH I'd live dug it!!! Out flopped a Seated Quarter!!!
Don't Miss More Photos of Finds in the First Reply Below!
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