Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
Left new machine in the truck while "Ole Faithful" pulls out 3 Va halfpennies & more
Got back out with my hunting partner Dan on Saturday in hopes of hunting our new site with the corn stalks mowed down and beans cut in an adjoining and promising area. But neither of those things had been taken care of so we were left to slog through the high stalks for a 3rd time. Before we did that we wanted to revisit the ravine and spring stream that were adjacent to the field. I wanted to recover a deep iron signal from the last time there but could not do so since I did not have my high water boots with me. It took a while digging down through the brick and large rocks, but I finally extricated a nice colonial flat iron from about 18 inches down in the stream bed. Just a few feet away on the slope Dan located a huge chunk of iron and we struggled to finally pull out after being entangled in large roots, and discovered we had dug a large and very heavy colonial andiron (25-30 pounds). Dan let me take it home, and I have a long and difficult job of cleaning it, but I think it'll be a cool piece when done. You can see a decorative ornament at the top, and other designs may be revealed once cleaned. This one is much bigger than those I viewed online and in my reference books, and it must have come from a huge fireplace, maybe from one that was part of the large manor house we've been looking for. I also recovered a hinge and the spout off a copper teapot from the stream, but what had me excited was what appeared to be a rolled up 1500s jetton that I dug next to the base a huge, rotten tree on the slope of the ravine. Last March at another very early site I found an almost identical looking item which in fact did turn out to be a 1580s Hans Krauwinkel jetton. One of the pics below shows the target I dug over the weekend on the left next to the one from last spring. You can see why I thought I had made a nice find. But once I cleaned it up I could see that dreaded shank inside the tube which burst my bubble.
At that point we started hitting the cornfield again. Dan hit the top near where the foundation was, and I decided to work further down the back slope. Things were quiet until I started hitting a nice little button hotspot, and I called for Dan to come down and join me. But he wanted to finish up the area he was working. Then a short time later I unexpectedly dug a Va halfpenny, and this time he couldn't resist. Right after we started hunting together I found another copper on the next row followed by a third a short time later completing the trifecta. But Dan was steadily digging buttons and other goodies (including that awesome spur) so he was having a fun time too. I ended up with about 15 buttons, with the nicest being another one of those 18th century open-work examples complete with gilting.
BTW - I had just purchased the recently released F75 Special Edition that includes a high recovery speed option but decided to leave it in the truck due to the circumstances of the site we were hunting. I wasn't about to take a new machine through the briars in the ravine and risk dropping it in the stream on its maiden voyage. And I didn't want to be banging it all day against those tough corn stalks, so I left it up to my 5 year old F75 to do the hard work. Guess I'll wait to use the new one in a heavy iron patch (maybe at one of our old sites), or possibly check out the boost mode in clean ground adjacent to a house site. Anyway, I'm looking forward to using this new detector and improving my finds. I guess time will tell.
Got back out with my hunting partner Dan on Saturday in hopes of hunting our new site with the corn stalks mowed down and beans cut in an adjoining and promising area. But neither of those things had been taken care of so we were left to slog through the high stalks for a 3rd time. Before we did that we wanted to revisit the ravine and spring stream that were adjacent to the field. I wanted to recover a deep iron signal from the last time there but could not do so since I did not have my high water boots with me. It took a while digging down through the brick and large rocks, but I finally extricated a nice colonial flat iron from about 18 inches down in the stream bed. Just a few feet away on the slope Dan located a huge chunk of iron and we struggled to finally pull out after being entangled in large roots, and discovered we had dug a large and very heavy colonial andiron (25-30 pounds). Dan let me take it home, and I have a long and difficult job of cleaning it, but I think it'll be a cool piece when done. You can see a decorative ornament at the top, and other designs may be revealed once cleaned. This one is much bigger than those I viewed online and in my reference books, and it must have come from a huge fireplace, maybe from one that was part of the large manor house we've been looking for. I also recovered a hinge and the spout off a copper teapot from the stream, but what had me excited was what appeared to be a rolled up 1500s jetton that I dug next to the base a huge, rotten tree on the slope of the ravine. Last March at another very early site I found an almost identical looking item which in fact did turn out to be a 1580s Hans Krauwinkel jetton. One of the pics below shows the target I dug over the weekend on the left next to the one from last spring. You can see why I thought I had made a nice find. But once I cleaned it up I could see that dreaded shank inside the tube which burst my bubble.
At that point we started hitting the cornfield again. Dan hit the top near where the foundation was, and I decided to work further down the back slope. Things were quiet until I started hitting a nice little button hotspot, and I called for Dan to come down and join me. But he wanted to finish up the area he was working. Then a short time later I unexpectedly dug a Va halfpenny, and this time he couldn't resist. Right after we started hunting together I found another copper on the next row followed by a third a short time later completing the trifecta. But Dan was steadily digging buttons and other goodies (including that awesome spur) so he was having a fun time too. I ended up with about 15 buttons, with the nicest being another one of those 18th century open-work examples complete with gilting.
BTW - I had just purchased the recently released F75 Special Edition that includes a high recovery speed option but decided to leave it in the truck due to the circumstances of the site we were hunting. I wasn't about to take a new machine through the briars in the ravine and risk dropping it in the stream on its maiden voyage. And I didn't want to be banging it all day against those tough corn stalks, so I left it up to my 5 year old F75 to do the hard work. Guess I'll wait to use the new one in a heavy iron patch (maybe at one of our old sites), or possibly check out the boost mode in clean ground adjacent to a house site. Anyway, I'm looking forward to using this new detector and improving my finds. I guess time will tell.
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