1/2 US Plate and some other goodies

[artifacthunter]

The Christmas rain melted our snow, so it seemed like a good idea to get out yesterday. A hunting buddy called me up and we made plans - putting on many layers to deal with the 25 deg. weather with wind gusts up to 35 miles per hour! We headed to a yard across the road from a Civil War camp in northern Maryland. An hour into the hunt, I was called over to help check out a hole about a foot deep. After some careful subsurface hole expansion, we pulled out the whatsit below. It is brass and about a foot long.

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We continued hunting, and then I heard a yell from the other end of the yard. Looking up, I saw my friend rip off his headphones and jump up holding something in his hand. I headed up his way and could tell something was good but not quite right. He was sort of yelling for joy and crying at the same time.
It turned out that at 8 inches down, he had finally dug his first US plate in about 25 years of detecting! Well - at least half of one. It looks like the plow (or a more exciting idea would be a sword) cut the plate in half long ago.

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Needless to say, we spent the rest of the hunt looking for the other half with no luck - but there will be many return hunts. I did get a big signal about 10 feet from the first hole, but dug down to find an aluminum can. I've attached my finds below - nothing nearly as good as my friend's!

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[CRUSADER]

Looks typical plough damage, so go find the rest

 

[pepperj]

Nasty plow hit, the other half should be there or in somebody elses collection.

 

[JimBeHuntin']

Nice 1/2 plate ... maybe luck will be with you guys and you'll find the other 1/2 on your next hunt there!!

 

[vayank54]

How big is the what zit. It looks like clicker. If that's what it is it was a toy and had a metal piece at the bottom that you would push in with you finger and when it would pop out it would make a clicking noise. some of them were made to look like bugs and other things.
The vertical part of the break on the plate looks pretty clean and with the gash in the S It looks like someone tried to chop it up with a big knife or a sword. I've dug several pieces of plates chopped up like that and found both pieces of a breast plate that had been chopped in 2 that had quite a few hack marks in it.

 

[{Sentinel}]

Nice half of a box plate

 

[artifacthunter]

How big is the what zit. It looks like clicker. If that's what it is it was a toy and had a metal piece at the bottom that you would push in with you finger and when it would pop out it would make a clicking noise. some of them were made to look like bugs and other things.
The vertical part of the break on the plate looks pretty clean and with the gash in the S It looks like someone tried to chop it up with a big knife or a sword. I've dug several pieces of plates chopped up like that and found both pieces of a breast plate that had been chopped in 2 that had quite a few hack marks in it.

Thanks for the comments! The unknown item at the top is about 12 inches long and 5 inches wide and made of brass. It seems like it would have slid down on top of something - maybe a decoration of some sort.

 

[vayank54]

How big is the what zit. It looks like clicker. If that's what it is it was a toy and had a metal piece at the bottom that you would push in with you finger and when it would pop out it would make a clicking noise. some of them were made to look like bugs and other things.
The vertical part of the break on the plate looks pretty clean and with the gash in the S It looks like someone tried to chop it up with a big knife or a sword. I've dug several pieces of plates chopped up like that and found both pieces of a breast plate that had been chopped in 2 that had quite a few hack marks in it.

Thanks for the comments! The unknown item at the top is about 12 inches long and 5 inches wide and made of brass. It seems like it would have slid down on top of something - maybe a decoration of some sort.

It's way bigger than I thought it was. No way it's a clicker.

 

[tymcmurray]

well done!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great recoveries!

Ty

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[bearbqd]

You got that plate all wrong. That's the much rarer Superman plate. Very sought after.

 

[goldencoin]

Neat!

HH
-GC

 

[cwdigger]

Congrats on the half of a box plate, the other half is bound to be there somewhere, another piece of history saved

Cw