OutdoorAdv
Bronze Member
- Apr 16, 2013
- 2,457
- 3,350
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 1
- Detector(s) used
-
XP Deus,
GPX 4500,
Equinox 800,
AT Max
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
I got out to do some swinging and sifting for a few hours Thursday evening, Saturday morning and Yesterday morning for a total of about 12 hours in the field. I've been processing the iron for a post and finally had a chance to catch up and get everything together for photos. I dug HUNDREDS of nails and pieces of iron trying to unmask targets, and on each day, I was able to unmask keepers. Its a TON of work, but boy does it feel good to clear out nails and find a hidden signal.
Forget Thursday and Saturday for a minute... I'm starting with yesterdays sifting trip. I have found that if I think of a strategy on my drive to hunt, then I am more successful. So this time my strategy was to dig a long trench off of a previous section and try to follow the pottery. After about 20 minutes and hand fulls of nails, I flipped over a bunch of dirt and get a really nice tone and pop out another early one piece Infantry button. I'm grinning like a fool at this point and my day was made regardless if anything else turned up. This button is the exact same as the one I got about a month ago and it was only about 15 feet from where I dug the other one. So this gave me a new strategy... thinking there might be a whole jacket of buttons, I decided to expand the pit right towards the location of the first button. So the pit changed directions and I kept excavating and removing nails. There are so many nails that I detect the soil a half dozen or more times before it goes back into the hole... the first time is after I break it up, then after I remove it, then a few times as I'm putting it back in. Its not uncommon to find stuff throughout as I remove the iron and shift the dirt around. I had a fresh pile of dirt that I had only detected once, so I stop to grab a drink and decide to swing over it again... get a slamming 87 on the Deus in the top of the loose dirt pile... I locate the target and go
!
I was holding half of a 2 reales Pistareen from Spain
I immediately noticed it had a glancing blow by the digger as I scrapped the dirt out of the pit. But when everything is masked with so much iron, this sort of thing happens.
I could see the last digit of the date, which is a 2, so I knew it was 17?2. I fired off some texts to a few buddies to share my excitement. My good friend BillD (VA) got back to me with some awesome information. This Pistareen has an Aqueduct mint mark denoting it was minted in Segovia Spain. That mint downsized and stopped minting Pistareens in 1729 and of the years it did make pistareens, 1722 was the only year that ended in a 2. In addition, Bill pointed out other features on the coin that were only on the 1721-1724 coins. Bill, thank you so much for your time, help and expertise
Once home, I rinsed it under water and realized the scrape was not as noticeable.
Better yet, the mint is still standing! It appears to have been renovated not too long ago and is now a museum and resturant: https://goo.gl/maps/LQ2rhvN6nm12 It blows my mind to look at the building this coin was made in 294 years ago and see the river that powered the presses that made this coin. In addition, the Aqueduct mint mark for Segovia is due to the "Aqueduct of Segovia" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct_of_Segovia) which was built by Romans and was functioning to provide water to Segovia until the mid 19th century.
This coin took a long journey by ship before finally resting in American soil.
This is my second cut silver, and it just so happens both are 1722. I found the last one at the same site more than a year ago. I couldn't be happier with this historic coin!
Now that is out of the way, I can show you guys the rest of the stuff
I recently added a pulse machine to my arsenal. With a ton of amazing help and guidance from Keith at Fort Bedford Detectors, I purchased a GPX4500. Thursday was my first time out with it. It's going to be a bit of a learning curve and I wont really be able to put it to the test until this winter when some underbrush dies down, but I did however turn up a nice piece of engraved brass with it.
I thoroughly enjoy the preservation aspect of this hobby, so I decided to anneal and straighten it because as it was twisted, it was not enjoyable to look at. After some heating and cooling, I was able to get it straight and still retain most of the patina. It still broke, but some careful gluing and a few tricks to dirty up the annealed part, I had it looking pretty good.
I realized the etching pattern was very similar to the flintlock patchbox plate I found last year. I opened my book "Collectors Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution and found a very similar trim piece on the top of a patch box plate. Its strictly ornamental and serves no purpose in the functioning of the patch box.
I pulled my patchbox plate out of the display and it lined up perfectly with the top of the plate. I was thrilled! Its evident that the same person etched both pieces of brass and I have renewed hope that the bottom piece and the hinge are somewhere at this site.
Saturday morning all I got were a few buttons, but one was a sliver of an etched tombac. I knew right away this piece completed a button I had dug about 10 feet away, over a year ago.... a year and 5 months to be exact (http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...nbelievable-site-now-more-believable-now.html) So this was my puzzle piece that completed a relic. Its back together again with a little glue and much nicer now that its complete.
Last year I sifted out a matching complete button and a sliver of a third one... so the rest of the other broken one must be there somewhere. Here they are all together again, most likely from the same coat.
Here is the one piece Infantry from yesterday, that led my pit in the direction of the Pistareen!
It has the same backmark as the other one from a month ago (http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/511544-incredible-one-piece-infantry-button.html)
The one on the left is the newly found one.
Here is some of the pottery from the last few days.
... and the iron! Every one of these signals was totally masked. Its a big gamble opening a section to sift, only to remove the nails and hope they are masking something. I have had many sections that were a bust, but every now and then they are great. I literally move TONS of dirt multiple times, in and out, of a section, while clearing out all the nails. The only plus is that I find many nice rose heads that I tumble and have in a large pile in my display. Its not uncommon for my magnet to attach itself to a dozen or so nails while clearing them out of the dirt.
Here is about 75% of the iron from the last few days after being tumbled and boiled in hot wax. I didnt count them, but I would guess its upwards of 200 pieces of iron in all shapes and sizes.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading all that
Hopefully the pictures broke up my long winded story... but I was pretty excited about the last few days.
Forget Thursday and Saturday for a minute... I'm starting with yesterdays sifting trip. I have found that if I think of a strategy on my drive to hunt, then I am more successful. So this time my strategy was to dig a long trench off of a previous section and try to follow the pottery. After about 20 minutes and hand fulls of nails, I flipped over a bunch of dirt and get a really nice tone and pop out another early one piece Infantry button. I'm grinning like a fool at this point and my day was made regardless if anything else turned up. This button is the exact same as the one I got about a month ago and it was only about 15 feet from where I dug the other one. So this gave me a new strategy... thinking there might be a whole jacket of buttons, I decided to expand the pit right towards the location of the first button. So the pit changed directions and I kept excavating and removing nails. There are so many nails that I detect the soil a half dozen or more times before it goes back into the hole... the first time is after I break it up, then after I remove it, then a few times as I'm putting it back in. Its not uncommon to find stuff throughout as I remove the iron and shift the dirt around. I had a fresh pile of dirt that I had only detected once, so I stop to grab a drink and decide to swing over it again... get a slamming 87 on the Deus in the top of the loose dirt pile... I locate the target and go
!I was holding half of a 2 reales Pistareen from Spain
I immediately noticed it had a glancing blow by the digger as I scrapped the dirt out of the pit. But when everything is masked with so much iron, this sort of thing happens.
I could see the last digit of the date, which is a 2, so I knew it was 17?2. I fired off some texts to a few buddies to share my excitement. My good friend BillD (VA) got back to me with some awesome information. This Pistareen has an Aqueduct mint mark denoting it was minted in Segovia Spain. That mint downsized and stopped minting Pistareens in 1729 and of the years it did make pistareens, 1722 was the only year that ended in a 2. In addition, Bill pointed out other features on the coin that were only on the 1721-1724 coins. Bill, thank you so much for your time, help and expertise
Once home, I rinsed it under water and realized the scrape was not as noticeable.
Better yet, the mint is still standing! It appears to have been renovated not too long ago and is now a museum and resturant: https://goo.gl/maps/LQ2rhvN6nm12 It blows my mind to look at the building this coin was made in 294 years ago and see the river that powered the presses that made this coin. In addition, the Aqueduct mint mark for Segovia is due to the "Aqueduct of Segovia" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aqueduct_of_Segovia) which was built by Romans and was functioning to provide water to Segovia until the mid 19th century.
This coin took a long journey by ship before finally resting in American soil.
This is my second cut silver, and it just so happens both are 1722. I found the last one at the same site more than a year ago. I couldn't be happier with this historic coin!
Now that is out of the way, I can show you guys the rest of the stuff
I recently added a pulse machine to my arsenal. With a ton of amazing help and guidance from Keith at Fort Bedford Detectors, I purchased a GPX4500. Thursday was my first time out with it. It's going to be a bit of a learning curve and I wont really be able to put it to the test until this winter when some underbrush dies down, but I did however turn up a nice piece of engraved brass with it.
I thoroughly enjoy the preservation aspect of this hobby, so I decided to anneal and straighten it because as it was twisted, it was not enjoyable to look at. After some heating and cooling, I was able to get it straight and still retain most of the patina. It still broke, but some careful gluing and a few tricks to dirty up the annealed part, I had it looking pretty good.
I realized the etching pattern was very similar to the flintlock patchbox plate I found last year. I opened my book "Collectors Illustrated Encyclopedia of the American Revolution and found a very similar trim piece on the top of a patch box plate. Its strictly ornamental and serves no purpose in the functioning of the patch box.
I pulled my patchbox plate out of the display and it lined up perfectly with the top of the plate. I was thrilled! Its evident that the same person etched both pieces of brass and I have renewed hope that the bottom piece and the hinge are somewhere at this site.
Saturday morning all I got were a few buttons, but one was a sliver of an etched tombac. I knew right away this piece completed a button I had dug about 10 feet away, over a year ago.... a year and 5 months to be exact (http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/t...nbelievable-site-now-more-believable-now.html) So this was my puzzle piece that completed a relic. Its back together again with a little glue and much nicer now that its complete.
Last year I sifted out a matching complete button and a sliver of a third one... so the rest of the other broken one must be there somewhere. Here they are all together again, most likely from the same coat.
Here is the one piece Infantry from yesterday, that led my pit in the direction of the Pistareen!
It has the same backmark as the other one from a month ago (http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/511544-incredible-one-piece-infantry-button.html)
The one on the left is the newly found one.
Here is some of the pottery from the last few days.
... and the iron! Every one of these signals was totally masked. Its a big gamble opening a section to sift, only to remove the nails and hope they are masking something. I have had many sections that were a bust, but every now and then they are great. I literally move TONS of dirt multiple times, in and out, of a section, while clearing out all the nails. The only plus is that I find many nice rose heads that I tumble and have in a large pile in my display. Its not uncommon for my magnet to attach itself to a dozen or so nails while clearing them out of the dirt.
Here is about 75% of the iron from the last few days after being tumbled and boiled in hot wax. I didnt count them, but I would guess its upwards of 200 pieces of iron in all shapes and sizes.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading all that
Hopefully the pictures broke up my long winded story... but I was pretty excited about the last few days.
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