2 SPANISH COBS TODAY! NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE IN 25 YEARS OF SWINGING

[Cross Potent]

Take care guys and gals. Moved to facebook and youtube.

 

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[Hitndahed]

Awesome finds,,,

I would love the opportunity to be able to hunt a place like this.
History,,, to me this is what MDing is all about,,
My prospecting is all about cash,, but this,,,makes me gasp.
I am totally new to MDing (at 57) but have been an avid rockhound, prospector for decades.
For me to hunt a place like this would be like finding the Grail,,,
I guess sooner or later I will find a "honey hole" but it's so cool to see this kinda stuff.

THANKS for the pics and Happy Hunting

Hit

 

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[Carolina Tom]

Very well done. Congrats on the cobs! GL&HH.

 

[Cross Potent]

I saw you said rain and snow what state are you in if I might ask ?

This site is Maryland.

 

[Cross Potent]

Hardcore!!! 2 Cobs in 20min??
Unheard off!! Them kind of sites are almost extinct..
You must be having a blast
That buckle is pretty awsome also..Look forward to seeing more..
We should only have a couple more weeks. .Then look out..lol
George

Thanks Vino. You guys up North must be losing it. Its been crappy here but I've managed to get out once every 10 days yet thats pretty tough. If this can be the last snow I'll be hunting this area everyday.

 

[Cross Potent]

Congrats !!! Cross Potent, nice finds. On the big one I can see México City mint mark (M and O above), also assayer mark P, then this mint/assayer/type only can be 2 reales, king Philip IV and although date zone is gone, it must be from 1641 or 1654 (perhaps 1653, 1655 or 1657, but I dont know if these types of issues are similars to yours). For 2 reales diameter must be 25 mm. , weight 6,76 gr. and silver fineness .931.

t.

It weighs 2.52 grams so its been clipped around the edges. A 1 reale for sure. Thanks

 

[Vino]

Oh yea, ive been climbing the wall..I have only been out 1 time in 3 months, and that time i had to chop through 4in of frozen ground!! Lol.
But ive had alot of time to get some new things for digging.
New shovel, privy prob, (im going to do alot of that this season) new head phones for the CTX. . And im looking at that new Racer coming out, Its supposed to be faster then the deus?? Will see..
Oh and alot of research. ..

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Yes I cant get over how sparse the buttons are. I'll count them up but it may only be 30 - 50. Many of them are cast pewter. I'm planning on asking the farmer if I can lease approx 2 acres this winter to prevent him from planting wheat otherwise with him planting corn and then wheat and then soybeans and then considering deer hunting season we wont get into this site again until feb 2017. That stinks. Anyway that brings me to your idea on an old inn. I found this link to calculate the land I want to lease and so I just went in and figured the area of the iron beds and its easily an acre or more. None of my other sites are even close to that large. I mean not half that.

Google Maps Area Calculator Tool

There is no question multiple buildings sat on this site but appear to have been fairly close together. Although the iron never really stops there are super concentrations that even my Deus has serious problems with. These are areas we plan to dig up starting next week. What I have noticed is there is so much iron in these areas that it appears its masking targets immediately beneath. Meaning we can just clear 3 or 4 inches off say a 20' x 30' area at a time to reveal even more relics. Neither of the cobs was deep - just a few inches. The farmer says we can leave the areas excavated overnight. He's really, really cool. If I had time I'd get a Bobcat back here. But he said they'll be spreading manure and working it in next month. Not enough time due to this whacky weather.

No doubt this is a very special place. I feel convinced it will produce many amazing things yet and will most likely be the best place I ever hunted without question. My only question of an inn here would be why is there so much widespread iron? Just crazy amounts of iron.

I know exactly what you're talking about CP. I've hunted a few sites like that where the iron is spread out over a huge area (quite a few acres) with concentrations where structures once stood. In between the major iron patches there are plenty of finds to be made without much difficulty, but once you get into the "machine gun" iron as I like to call it you're talking about a whole new ball game. No matter what detector you use, coil size, settings, etc, you just can't pick out many of the targets in the ridiculous iron. A good tutorial by Tom Dankowski showing how you can slowly get to the relics by peeling off shallow layers is linked below. This is probably the technique you'll need to employ at your site, or something similar. But, of course, a bobcat would be a much better alternative.

The Painful Truth by: Thomas Dankowski

The more I think about it, I'm beginning to believe your site was just a busy, early plantation instead of an inn or tavern. The multiple structures and vast iron field doesn't lend itself well to the inn/tavern senario. Dan and I have encountered 2 such sites in the last couple of years that also dated to the 1600s, but most of the activity at both sites came a little later in the 18th century. We pulled about 20 pieces of colonial silver from each, mostly cut pieces but a few cobs and hammered Lizzies were also recovered. But unlike yours, each of these sites also produced hundreds of buttons and had multiple trash pits. We also discovered multiple brick foundations at both sites. We still haven't completely finished hunting them, but the initial excitement like you're experiencing now has worn off. Our main objective from here on is to finish excavating the pits, but winter wheat has kept us out of both this season.

You are very fortunate to not only have a great site, but an owner/farmer who does not object to you digging the heck out of the place. I just hope you have time to hit it hard before the door closes on you in the next few weeks. But regardless, you'll have an awesome site to come back to for the foreseeable future. Good luck to you guys!!

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

I forgot this earlier CP, but since you've found so many decorative leather ornaments, here's a good link to help you ID and date them. You may be familiar with this site already since its from the "Diagnostic Artifacts In Maryland" website. It's a pretty nice reference source for these items as well as other small finds.

Diagnostic Artifacts - Small Finds - Leather Ornaments

 

[Cross Potent]

I know exactly what you're talking about CP. I've hunted a few sites like that where the iron is spread out over a huge area (quite a few acres) with concentrations where structures once stood. In between the major iron patches there are plenty of finds to be made without much difficulty, but once you get into the "machine gun" iron as I like to call it you're talking about a whole new ball game. No matter what detector you use, coil size, settings, etc, you just can't pick out many of the targets in the ridiculous iron. A good tutorial by Tom Dankowski showing how you can slowly get to the relics by peeling off shallow layers is linked below. This is probably the technique you'll need to employ at your site, or something similar. But, of course, a bobcat would be a much better alternative.

The Painful Truth by: Thomas Dankowski

The more I think about it, I'm beginning to believe your site was just a busy, early plantation instead of an inn or tavern. The multiple structures and vast iron field doesn't lend itself well to the inn/tavern senario. Dan and I have encountered 2 such sites in the last couple of years that also dated to the 1600s, but most of the activity at both sites came a little later in the 18th century. We pulled about 20 pieces of colonial silver from each, mostly cut pieces but a few cobs and hammered Lizzies were also recovered. But unlike yours, each of these sites also produced hundreds of buttons and had multiple trash pits. We also discovered multiple brick foundations at both sites. We still haven't completely finished hunting them, but the initial excitement like you're experiencing now has worn off. Our main objective from here on is to finish excavating the pits, but winter wheat has kept us out of both this season.

You are very fortunate to not only have a great site, but an owner/farmer who does not object to you digging the heck out of the place. I just hope you have time to hit it hard before the door closes on you in the next few weeks. But regardless, you'll have an awesome site to come back to for the foreseeable future. Good luck to you guys!!

Thanks for the response Bill. This is just a short post before I forget. 1. My wife may have struck the foundation of one of the buildings yesterday while digging for a target. We left it open to investigate later. 2. The iron is so concentrated in one spot that on an earlier hunt while digging for a target I managed to rough up the ground enough to actually get 5 separate targets in less than a 2' square section. They were not there before I began digging so I am positive the iron is masking targets big time. And the masking is happening in just 2 or 3 inches. That means even the best detector can not get past this mess. Only option is to dig and I suspect it will breath life into this site. We'll see. I may video tape the process just to show how it works - or not. lol

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Lots of GOOD stuff there! A 2-cob day awesome! Congrats on a bunch of great finds? This maybe a fantastic year for you two!

 

[Cross Potent]

I know exactly what you're talking about CP. I've hunted a few sites like that where the iron is spread out over a huge area (quite a few acres) with concentrations where structures once stood. In between the major iron patches there are plenty of finds to be made without much difficulty, but once you get into the "machine gun" iron as I like to call it you're talking about a whole new ball game. No matter what detector you use, coil size, settings, etc, you just can't pick out many of the targets in the ridiculous iron. A good tutorial by Tom Dankowski showing how you can slowly get to the relics by peeling off shallow layers is linked below. This is probably the technique you'll need to employ at your site, or something similar. But, of course, a bobcat would be a much better alternative.

The Painful Truth by: Thomas Dankowski

The more I think about it, I'm beginning to believe your site was just a busy, early plantation instead of an inn or tavern. The multiple structures and vast iron field doesn't lend itself well to the inn/tavern senario. Dan and I have encountered 2 such sites in the last couple of years that also dated to the 1600s, but most of the activity at both sites came a little later in the 18th century. We pulled about 20 pieces of colonial silver from each, mostly cut pieces but a few cobs and hammered Lizzies were also recovered. But unlike yours, each of these sites also produced hundreds of buttons and had multiple trash pits. We also discovered multiple brick foundations at both sites. We still haven't completely finished hunting them, but the initial excitement like you're experiencing now has worn off. Our main objective from here on is to finish excavating the pits, but winter wheat has kept us out of both this season.

You are very fortunate to not only have a great site, but an owner/farmer who does not object to you digging the heck out of the place. I just hope you have time to hit it hard before the door closes on you in the next few weeks. But regardless, you'll have an awesome site to come back to for the foreseeable future. Good luck to you guys!!

Thanks for the link to the Dankowski article. Just got around to reading them. That pretty much tells me what I expected. There's a lot down there and it aint really all that deep. Easy, easy digging so clearing large sections should not be that difficult. I can hardly wait to try this out.

 

[Limey-digger]

Great coins but the Tudor rose mount is what caught my eye. Great looking relic and an obvious import from the old world.
George.

 

[StormSurge]

Certainly looks like a rein terret or guide but because of its size I would agree with JamieD on the pocket corkscrew commonly known as a picnic corkscrew. Nice ID JamieD. Maybe you'll have some luck in finding the screw or sheath to it.

 

[davehky]

Congrats to you! Awesome finds.

 

[Cross Potent]

Well, here comes the latest snowstorm. Already accumulating! Was really hoping to skip this one. lol

 

[Ahab8]

Well, here comes the latest snowstorm. Already accumulating! Was really hoping to skip this one. lol

You deserve every bit of it CP for posting all of those killer colonial treasures well I've been looking at 4 feet of snow for 3 months lol. At least your snow melts quickly. Ours might be here til June. Stay safe brother

 

[Peachy]

I am humbled. Fantastic !

 

[Cross Potent]

You deserve every bit of it CP for posting all of those killer colonial treasures well I've been looking at 4 feet of snow for 3 months lol. At least your snow melts quickly. Ours might be here til June. Stay safe brother

LOL! The relic gods have been kind to me no doubt. And at least I have been able to hunt once every 10 days. So far, this storm isnt doing too much here. We have less than an inch and it seems to be winding down. Hope you get to hunt before June otherwise you'll be nuts by then!

 

[shimloom]

That's just crazy off the hook great finds. Wow!

 

[Ahab8]

LOL! The relic gods have been kind to me no doubt. And at least I have been able to hunt once every 10 days. So far, this storm isnt doing too much here. We have less than an inch and it seems to be winding down. Hope you get to hunt before June otherwise you'll be nuts by then!

No I'll be knocking on your door begging you to take me out lol