Narthoniel
Bronze Member
Hello,
This morning I told my wife I did not want to hunt the woods that I planned to go to. I have tried all week to find a different site to spend this weekend's hunt. My weekend was cut short by an unusual day of work on Saturday, so I was NOT staying in today. A hunt with no loot is better than no hunt at all.
The predicted rain missed us and instead we had a beautiful day in the 80s. Upon my arrival, I noticed the woods were very saturated from all the recent rain and a lot of standing water was present. I figured I would stick to the high ground and hope for the best. Two weeks ago I spent a couple hours here and found nada. Lots of trash for sure, but nothing old.
About an hour or so into today's hunt I stumbled onto some bricks while digging a target. Nearby I found old glass bottles on the surface. I began to wonder what was there once, if anything. I worked the area well but no dice, nothing worth mentioning. As I began to work my way deeper into the woods and I finally found a good signal that was not an ancient soda can. After battling with 2 roots a big flat button popped out and I let out a yell. This baby is bigger than a quarter, by far my biggest button. As of yet, no detail is visible, but I still have some dirt to clean off.
About a half hour later my second button of the day showed itself. This is smaller, close to a nickle size in diameter. The backmark says "PLATED" and there are a few stars. I am not done cleaning this one, it looks like it may come out nice once finished. I need to head back to that area as I did not cover it well at all(these woods are huge!). About an hour later, I heard a chirp, but kept walking. I glanced at the screen, and saw one of those readings that makes your heart flutter and jumped backwards. It turns out I had just barely brushed over a target with the edge of a swing. A few short seconds after finding it again a big ol' copper disc popped out! My fifth large cent of the year! I had hoped to get a date, but there is severe damage, and I don't think I will be able to get it to reveal it's age. I suppose it really is not nice to ask a Lady how old she is, but I really want to know! I have only been able to date 2 of my coppers so far this year.
Soon after the LC joined the party, I stumbled onto a huge bottle dump! I called my wife and sent a friend an email via her to see if he could come help me date it. I have never done bottles, and he has a good deal of experience with them. After that, I started to head back to the truck - now half a mile behind me - carrying a couple neat bottles. I was planning to head home when Josh called me. I explained what I had found, and he headed straight over. An hour later he arrived, and man did he do a job on that site! We found 2 pieces of intact china(a plate and a saucer) with Navy emblems on them. He said the bottles all seemed to date to the 1920s-1940s. I brought a ton home, and the wife cleaned a few, most are still filthy. There are still hundreds of bottles all over the place there, and about 80-90% are intact. Here are some photos of the ones I brought home. My wife cleaned a few, but most are still filthy. The milk bottle on the front is very nice, it has a phone number on it for the dairy. It has 5 didgits in the number!
It was difficult, but I managed to pry him away to do some more detecting. We had about 90 minutes of daylight left, and what a great time it proved to be. Not 15 minutes in I hit an iffy signal that rang up as a zinc penny about 10 feet from where I found the LC. 4 minutes of digging later, I realized I missed, and the target was on the side of the hole. When I finally found it, I stared in amazement at what I held - a tiny tiny little coin! I walked over and showed him the dirty little thing, and when i handed it to him, he takes his dirty gloved hand and wipes the face hard two times and says, "Yep, she's sittin!" before I could scream. Thankfully there don't appear to be any scratches evident from it. I am glad I was able to teach him how to handle silver coins in the field. After some coaxing, this coin did reveal it's age - 1844!! My second half dime in as many months. This was my oldest silver coin ever, beating out last month's 1857 half dime. This year is off to a great start!
Soon after my excitement lessened, I was back at it when he called me over. He had just dug a ring! It is brass, has a nice design on it, and appears to be very very old. Around that time he noticed a hole, and said, "Man! That looks like a cellar hole! Have you hunted around it yet?" I had not. We stuck near it for the next hour.
10-20 minutes after his ring find, I hit a nice signal in the button range. A few numbers below zinc penny. I told him, "Sweet, another nice signal!" And started to dig. I was hoping for another nice flat button, but what rolled out was ANOTHER tiny silver coin! I spent about 3 minutes gently dabbing the dirt with saliva to try and coax some detail out of it. I was praying for a bust half dime. But that find waits for another day. After a few miniutes I showed him the coin again, slightly cleaner, and he almost fell over. "Dude...I see a shield..." I screamed, felt very dizzy and lightheaded. The coin went right into a very safe place, and only when I got home and cleaned it up did it tell it's story. This little beauty is a 1802 Half Reale!!! Only a short time after setting a new silver record, I had beaten it again!
I began to feel bad for gettin all the goodies, so my next good target I gave to him. It was a very nice looking flat button about the size of a nickle. I have not heard any details about it yet. Soon after this was found, he called me over again, saying, "You will never guess what I just found!" He was right. He had just dug up his SECOND brass ring!! Lucky dog! Both appear to be along the same time period as the coins we found.
Soon after that, the sun started going down, so we grudgingly turned torward the truck. Soon after turning, he walked a few feet in front of me and passed me to the left. After he passed me, I walked right across the path he had just walked, and picked up a chirp in a patch of iron. I said, "Man, you just walked over a good one!" I scanned it from several directions, and almost walked past it too. Sounded like iron pretending to be not iron so I would relieve it from its gloomy resting place. But every other swing that nice chirp sounded through, so I turned on iron mask and dug. When a small silver coin rolled out, I almost fell over, and so did he. This one was clearly visible as soon as it rolled out. SPANISH SILVER!!! And yet again, for the third time today, I broke the record. My oldest silver coin to date, which I don't think will ever be broken, is now a beautiful half reale that is 228 years old. 1781!!!(edited the date - thanks Buckleboy)
As I was revelling in my newfound coin(by sitting down due to feeling lightheaded), he picked up a NICE signal 5 feet from my reale. Out popped a BEAUTIFUL copper coin, and we never saw the detail! All we know is that it is smaller than a LC, and very close to a quarter in size. I cannot wait to hear what he dug, as I suspect it to be a half cent or perhaps colonial. Only time, and peroxide, can tell. A few minutes later I picked up my fourth button for the day - a nice little cuff button. By this time it was almost dark, and we had to call it quits if we wanted to find our way back to my truck.
I do not think I will ever be able to top this hunt. 1 old silver is enough to make me ecstatic - 3 of them is beyond insane. I think I will be spending a lot of quality time in these woods. It appears that there was a fire here at some point - All 4 coins that I found show evidence of being cooked. I also found 3 ticks on me when I got home. And they were not in appropriate places either! How they got down my pants I do not know, but I will be a walking can of DEET next time!
I hope you enjoyed my long winded story. If I bored you, I am very sorry. Either way, I hope there are dozens of colonial silver coins out there for each and every one of us!
Thank you for reading and Happy Hunting!
Anthony
This morning I told my wife I did not want to hunt the woods that I planned to go to. I have tried all week to find a different site to spend this weekend's hunt. My weekend was cut short by an unusual day of work on Saturday, so I was NOT staying in today. A hunt with no loot is better than no hunt at all.
The predicted rain missed us and instead we had a beautiful day in the 80s. Upon my arrival, I noticed the woods were very saturated from all the recent rain and a lot of standing water was present. I figured I would stick to the high ground and hope for the best. Two weeks ago I spent a couple hours here and found nada. Lots of trash for sure, but nothing old.
About an hour or so into today's hunt I stumbled onto some bricks while digging a target. Nearby I found old glass bottles on the surface. I began to wonder what was there once, if anything. I worked the area well but no dice, nothing worth mentioning. As I began to work my way deeper into the woods and I finally found a good signal that was not an ancient soda can. After battling with 2 roots a big flat button popped out and I let out a yell. This baby is bigger than a quarter, by far my biggest button. As of yet, no detail is visible, but I still have some dirt to clean off.
About a half hour later my second button of the day showed itself. This is smaller, close to a nickle size in diameter. The backmark says "PLATED" and there are a few stars. I am not done cleaning this one, it looks like it may come out nice once finished. I need to head back to that area as I did not cover it well at all(these woods are huge!). About an hour later, I heard a chirp, but kept walking. I glanced at the screen, and saw one of those readings that makes your heart flutter and jumped backwards. It turns out I had just barely brushed over a target with the edge of a swing. A few short seconds after finding it again a big ol' copper disc popped out! My fifth large cent of the year! I had hoped to get a date, but there is severe damage, and I don't think I will be able to get it to reveal it's age. I suppose it really is not nice to ask a Lady how old she is, but I really want to know! I have only been able to date 2 of my coppers so far this year.
Soon after the LC joined the party, I stumbled onto a huge bottle dump! I called my wife and sent a friend an email via her to see if he could come help me date it. I have never done bottles, and he has a good deal of experience with them. After that, I started to head back to the truck - now half a mile behind me - carrying a couple neat bottles. I was planning to head home when Josh called me. I explained what I had found, and he headed straight over. An hour later he arrived, and man did he do a job on that site! We found 2 pieces of intact china(a plate and a saucer) with Navy emblems on them. He said the bottles all seemed to date to the 1920s-1940s. I brought a ton home, and the wife cleaned a few, most are still filthy. There are still hundreds of bottles all over the place there, and about 80-90% are intact. Here are some photos of the ones I brought home. My wife cleaned a few, but most are still filthy. The milk bottle on the front is very nice, it has a phone number on it for the dairy. It has 5 didgits in the number!
It was difficult, but I managed to pry him away to do some more detecting. We had about 90 minutes of daylight left, and what a great time it proved to be. Not 15 minutes in I hit an iffy signal that rang up as a zinc penny about 10 feet from where I found the LC. 4 minutes of digging later, I realized I missed, and the target was on the side of the hole. When I finally found it, I stared in amazement at what I held - a tiny tiny little coin! I walked over and showed him the dirty little thing, and when i handed it to him, he takes his dirty gloved hand and wipes the face hard two times and says, "Yep, she's sittin!" before I could scream. Thankfully there don't appear to be any scratches evident from it. I am glad I was able to teach him how to handle silver coins in the field. After some coaxing, this coin did reveal it's age - 1844!! My second half dime in as many months. This was my oldest silver coin ever, beating out last month's 1857 half dime. This year is off to a great start!
Soon after my excitement lessened, I was back at it when he called me over. He had just dug a ring! It is brass, has a nice design on it, and appears to be very very old. Around that time he noticed a hole, and said, "Man! That looks like a cellar hole! Have you hunted around it yet?" I had not. We stuck near it for the next hour.
10-20 minutes after his ring find, I hit a nice signal in the button range. A few numbers below zinc penny. I told him, "Sweet, another nice signal!" And started to dig. I was hoping for another nice flat button, but what rolled out was ANOTHER tiny silver coin! I spent about 3 minutes gently dabbing the dirt with saliva to try and coax some detail out of it. I was praying for a bust half dime. But that find waits for another day. After a few miniutes I showed him the coin again, slightly cleaner, and he almost fell over. "Dude...I see a shield..." I screamed, felt very dizzy and lightheaded. The coin went right into a very safe place, and only when I got home and cleaned it up did it tell it's story. This little beauty is a 1802 Half Reale!!! Only a short time after setting a new silver record, I had beaten it again!
I began to feel bad for gettin all the goodies, so my next good target I gave to him. It was a very nice looking flat button about the size of a nickle. I have not heard any details about it yet. Soon after this was found, he called me over again, saying, "You will never guess what I just found!" He was right. He had just dug up his SECOND brass ring!! Lucky dog! Both appear to be along the same time period as the coins we found.
Soon after that, the sun started going down, so we grudgingly turned torward the truck. Soon after turning, he walked a few feet in front of me and passed me to the left. After he passed me, I walked right across the path he had just walked, and picked up a chirp in a patch of iron. I said, "Man, you just walked over a good one!" I scanned it from several directions, and almost walked past it too. Sounded like iron pretending to be not iron so I would relieve it from its gloomy resting place. But every other swing that nice chirp sounded through, so I turned on iron mask and dug. When a small silver coin rolled out, I almost fell over, and so did he. This one was clearly visible as soon as it rolled out. SPANISH SILVER!!! And yet again, for the third time today, I broke the record. My oldest silver coin to date, which I don't think will ever be broken, is now a beautiful half reale that is 228 years old. 1781!!!(edited the date - thanks Buckleboy)
As I was revelling in my newfound coin(by sitting down due to feeling lightheaded), he picked up a NICE signal 5 feet from my reale. Out popped a BEAUTIFUL copper coin, and we never saw the detail! All we know is that it is smaller than a LC, and very close to a quarter in size. I cannot wait to hear what he dug, as I suspect it to be a half cent or perhaps colonial. Only time, and peroxide, can tell. A few minutes later I picked up my fourth button for the day - a nice little cuff button. By this time it was almost dark, and we had to call it quits if we wanted to find our way back to my truck.
I do not think I will ever be able to top this hunt. 1 old silver is enough to make me ecstatic - 3 of them is beyond insane. I think I will be spending a lot of quality time in these woods. It appears that there was a fire here at some point - All 4 coins that I found show evidence of being cooked. I also found 3 ticks on me when I got home. And they were not in appropriate places either! How they got down my pants I do not know, but I will be a walking can of DEET next time!
I hope you enjoyed my long winded story. If I bored you, I am very sorry. Either way, I hope there are dozens of colonial silver coins out there for each and every one of us!
Thank you for reading and Happy Hunting!
Anthony
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, but it was another lesson I didn't know and I appreciate it! Look forward to hunting with you again!
. I did look at the 1802, and saw his name followed by a lot of I's, and assumed there were 3. Did not make sense to list IIII when IV worked better. I think yer right, they were(and still are) a bit "touched".
ANTHONY! What a hunt!! What a site!! What some amazing finds! 
Hope it had something to do with your recent luck. You sure brought some my way with the 1789 coin that Sunday. I am thrilled for you and hope you find many more. Be careful with the warmer weather and the ticks and snakes. The day after our hunt I found a Lone Star tick on me. Nasty little critters. Again, congratulations on your finds.
