Best day ever in 10+ years detecting. Spanish spill or colonial cache and artifacts!

[Tommybuckets]

Smokey and I headed back to our amazing colonial site that has been producing some extraordinary finds.

The plan was simple; expand the edge of our hole that produced amazing hammered coins and relics last dig, as we suspected there was more we just didn't have the time to retrieve previously.

We dug down about 20 inches and spread the dirt about 12 inches thick on the edge of the hole. As we worked the dirt we had taken out of the hole it became apparent that our guess was the best possible one as to which way to dig!

The first signal was a screamer and out came the first of many great finds, an 18th century buckle. It is amazing and disconcerting that our state of the art detectors can't pick these items out at depth but the sad truth is they are too deep with too much iron in the ground with them. Then we eyeballed another buckle that had fallen loose and was in great shape as it was below the reach of the plow. All together four and a half buckles or buckle parts came out of the hole this day!

Since I was below ground level at this point, I took the job of actually Locating the items in the wet dirt. I fanned through the loose dirt with my fingers and we spotted it: that black and white shine of old silver. It sent a little shiver down the spine as my brain realized its not a button or trash but in fact the treasure we were seeking. I saw the globe and pillars of an older half reale then saw the date 1748 and I was in awe. I passed the coin up to put in the bucket and she was fairly flabbergasted which is rare for her. "Keep going there's got to be more! "

I prepared myself that the next signal probably wouldn't be as amazing but secretly yearned that we would hit it big. I scrabbled through the dirt and there was Charles the 3rd and his big nose on a 1773 half reale grinning up at me. I just started laughing and couldn't stop.

I started cutting the wall back further and out drops another silver looking round (and hopefully a) coin. It was a smaller nose Charles the 4th 1798 1 reale. We were ecstatic! In a good year, I find maybe one Spanish silver and here we are with three in five minutes! All at once I want to dig as rapidly as possible. Smokey says to take it really slowly and not damage anything. Smokey's standing above the hole sweeping the edge of the cut. " Keep going this way." Today this was MY hole but I wasn't minding a bit of guidance!

I gently scooped out another piece of the sidewall and there's bright shiny silver in the lip! Big silver, the stuff I had only dreamed about until that day. I snapped a picture and got some video of me puling it out. Its a Charles 3rd 1779 2 reale ! The next few signals were nails and buttons and we start seeing some black colonial glass. I start carefully probing and pulling out pottery shards of beautiful blue grey Westerwald pottery exported from Germany in the first half of the 18th century, hand painted red ware and pipe stems were emerging with the shells.

It felt like minutes but I know two hours went by like nothing with the excitement and endorphins we had going. I scanned the bottom and sides of the hole with the Equinox and it was a caucophony of iron and mid range targets that were too often colonial buckshot and lead bits. The high sounds kept turning out to be big square nails. The Equinox loves the nails, and didn't pick out mid or high range targets in the sidewall. My mind scrambled which way to dig. Down, sideways try another hole? The rain had started as a trickle and had become a full on cold hard rain. I looked at Smokey as she checked the hole with the Deus and she shook her head. The Deus was not fooled by the iron and no more targets, iron or otherwise were being found in the new 8' long sections of sidewall. All the good targets seemed to be out of the hole. I hated filling it in since I didn't get a cob and I know that's where I am going to find one but there's only so much one can do in a day. We huffed and puffed and got it back as nice as we could in the rain. It was now really sticking to the shovel, but we made it look great and then started sweeping the same ground we've been over so many times. We just couldn't dig the other pit she had pointed out to me, it would have been too wet and cold to not be moving around more. So we started detecting.

I was surprised when another buckle came out right beside our hole! It rang up "23" at a foot down and was fairly repeatable despite laying on a bed of iron.

Outside of the hole, one of the larger choice targets was a complete colonial hoe! That's the second one from this site. The other was found a few weeks ago and about 20' away. We detected about 1 more hour. At one point Smokey says to come check this out. A silvered button lying on top of the ground. Smokey did pretty well outside of the hole and I got 4 Reales and four and a half buckles.

The rain finally soaked us through and we headed back to the car to oggle our bounty. I had never heard of someone getting four reales in one day let alone one hole and that person was ME! I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I was awake but if it was a dream I didn't want it to end. I wish we could get in there with a back hoe and really get to the bottom of things lol. I feel like we left many mysteries unsolved and many signals unexplored. The good news is that this is the first cooking area/ trash pit we excavated at this site and we have indications where there are more. There's still plenty of turf we haven't swung over yet and the ground we've covered is still giving up artifacts so I think we are in good shape as long as the permission holds. I think Smokey and I will have a lot to post from this site in the month(s) ahead until they plant it again. Thanks for looking and enjoy!

It was a blast, even though it rained, and working together with another detectorist is always a good bet

 

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[Tommybuckets]

Truth1253, I feel the same way. I think this strategy is really useful for those spots where you've gotten multiple good items in the past. I can definitely think of more spots where digging a 20" deep pit and then detecting the dirt in and out of the hole could be really good. Its great because all the bone and ceramic and glass comes out and you get an idea of how and when the piece of ground was utilized.

 

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[Tommybuckets]

I want to thank you all for checking out my post! It means a lot to me since you and your posts are so inspirational to me. I also really owe Smokey a big thanks for keeping me stoked on this site and willingness to share techniques and experience. When we first started here we heard there was another detectorist who had worked the site hard and often. I was a little discouraged there weren't more easy finds and I assumed the last person had cleaned most everything up. It seems more detective work and thinking outside the box is helping. I still think the detectorists of the past did clean up many of the easy targets that were shallow and away from the iron. Now we are meticulously investigating those iffy deep signals as we strip down through the layers of detritus. I find I get the coil right over something and coax a non ferrous tone and if I turn 90 degrees the signal is lost or drops to iron. Sometimes you can't ever find it again. It seems the best move is get the shovel in and keep pinpointing and don't assume that first target out of the hole is what you heard at first. Often once you remove a plug the detector can no longer sense the target since they are deep. You just kind of dig blind hoping you can get the hole deep enough and the pinpointer close enough.

 

[Megalodon]

That's one of the really fun parts about detecting is speculating how the items got there. We were finding a lot of bones in the hole. I suspect the trash pit is right next to where they sat and cooked and smoked their pipes. Either they threw out something containing the coins or lost them sitting in the same spots on a dirt floor.

It would be interesting to hear from an expert on clothing of that era. When we speak of coin "spills", I think of small coins falling from a pants pockets - but did pants then even commonly have pockets? Some of the places where I have found coins of that age were places burned by the British during the summer of 1814. Could the coins have been hidden and just not recovered (until now)? How often do we temporarily lose something we held just a few days ago - without the trauma of invasion and terror from the best troops in the World fresh from Napoleonic Wars. Or could they have been in the house that was burned by the British? Such conjecture makes this hobby even more fun.

 

[Tommybuckets]

Wow, that’s just incredible. You and Smokey shouldn’t bother us with posts about finding a single reale anymore. You’ve set the bar too high. Only post from now on when you find at least a reale spill [emoji23]

In all seriousness, that’s some incredible stuff. Way to go guys.

Haha yes I feel like this site and Smokey's civil war site have ruined me to going to parks and such. Research and staying on good sites even when they don't seem to be producing is the best way to get the best finds. I am happy if I get one 19th century coin in an outing. A friend just yesterday got a beautiful cob from a permission that I had worked really hard and gotten discouraged. It makes me wonder how thorough I am before I dismiss a piece of ground.

 

[Megalodon]

I want to thank you all for checking out my post! It means a lot to me since you and your posts are so inspirational to me. I also really owe Smokey a big thanks for keeping me stoked on this site and willingness to share techniques and experience. When we first started here we heard there was another detectorist who had worked the site hard and often. I was a little discouraged there weren't more easy finds and I assumed the last person had cleaned most everything up. It seems more detective work and thinking outside the box is helping. I still think the detectorists of the past did clean up many of the easy targets that were shallow and away from the iron. Now we are meticulously investigating those iffy deep signals as we strip down through the layers of detritus. I find I get the coil right over something and coax a non ferrous tone and if I turn 90 degrees the signal is lost or drops to iron. Sometimes you can't ever find it again. It seems the best move is get the shovel in and keep pinpointing and don't assume that first target out of the hole is what you heard at first. Often once you remove a plug the detector can no longer sense the target since they are deep. You just kind of dig blind hoping you can get the hole deep enough and the pinpointer close enough.

Well, I confess to being haunted that the "other detectorist" who hit this site often 30 years ago might have been me. Now that I'm retired, I hope to return to those old places. But you both deserve the fruits of your hard work at this site, regardless of who hunted it decades ago. It is pretty safe to assume that any spot we find has been previously hunted.

 

[Tommybuckets]

It would be interesting to hear from an expert on clothing of that era. When we speak of coin "spills", I think of small coins falling from a pants pockets - but did pants then even commonly have pockets? Some of the places where I have found coins of that age were places burned by the British during the summer of 1814. Could the coins have been hidden and just not recovered (until now)? How often do we temporarily lose something we held just a few days ago - without the trauma of invasion and terror from the best troops in the World fresh from Napoleonic Wars. Or could they have been in the house that was burned by the British? Such conjecture makes this hobby even more fun.

The layer of ash makes me wonder. Deeper than we dug this time there are large flat stones that were the base of a hearth or foundation. They are at approx 30" . We were tempted to dig them out but almost everything is above that layer as far as we can tell. I would love to scan it with ground penetrating radar.

 

[Megalodon]

The layer of ash makes me wonder. Deeper than we dug this time there are large flat stones that were the base of a hearth or foundation. They are at approx 30" . We were tempted to dig them out but almost everything is above that layer as far as we can tell. I would love to scan it with ground penetrating radar.

When the ash is up within the plow zone, it can sometimes be seen from the air - even 200 years after a place has burned down. I once found a place burned by the British in 1814 by flying over the site and was so excited to get permission and hunt it. Unfortunately the EMI was the worst I have experienced. Walking back to my truck with the detector turned off, I found a nice 1807 US large cent - sitting right on the surface.

I think a drone operated by someone who knows how to use it might be a useful tool to find these old homesites.

 

[smokeythecat]

Megalodon, as far as pockets go, it's used as a general term for any receptacle to put coins in. Small bags were common. But they got lost too. Think of the debit card I lost at the convenience store in a matter of 5 minutes yesterday! And we are considering a drone.

 

[MetalArchSC]

Wow! Awesome saves! All in one day?
I’m voting BANNER!!!!!!

 

[Truth]

Truth1253, I feel the same way. I think this strategy is really useful for those spots where you've gotten multiple good items in the past. I can definitely think of more spots where digging a 20" deep pit and then detecting the dirt in and out of the hole could be really good. Its great because all the bone and ceramic and glass comes out and you get an idea of how and when the piece of ground was utilized.

I’m doing it, it’s in a spot in the swamp were there is lots of smaller viney roots and white shells mixed in with the soil and lots of smaller square nails. So I’m going to implement this plan and start by shaking out the roots, then using my magnet to get every piece of small bit iron I’ve been chasing then work from there. My release magnet will be in tomorrow!!!

 

[Tommybuckets]

Can't wait to get back there. I took off Thursday n Friday but the weather looks dismal. Its going to be frozen solid. Sadness