Shipwreck finds....A cob and that is not my favorite find.

[N.J.THer]

I took the kids to the Outer Banks for their Easter break this past week. I had to take the detector out. In addition to clad and common jewelery finds I was able to find a few oldies.

First is a Spanish silver cob.

My favorite find was a cluster of what I believe is pistol shot. I can see at least four musket balls. It looks like it is in wood but it seems to be petrified and may have had some nails in it at some point that rusted away. Someone suggested the musket balls may have been stored in a wood box and when the ship wrecked that some iron object was by the wood and the rust petrified it. Not sure if that is even possible. Would love to hear others theories.

Thanks for looking.
NJ

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[Bavaria Mike]

Congrats on the Cob! That is an interesting piece with the musket balls. HH, Mike

 

[Deepdiger60]

Great looking Silver cob and those definitely look like shot to me in wood, its possible Good hunt Dd60

 

[goldencoin]

Wow, a cob would make my year! Keep it up

HH
-GC

 

[Iron Patch]

A silver cob is a great day!

 

[swent1]

great cob, i wonder if the piece of wood was used as
target practice do they look like they were shot?

 

[allen]

those are some cool finds !

 

[N.J.THer]

great cob, i wonder if the piece of wood was used as
target practice do they look like they were shot?

I don't believe they were fired. I do some work on American Revolution battlefields and it is pretty easy to tell the difference between a dropped musket ball and a impacted one. Since lead is a soft metal when it hits a target it will change shape especially if it is a hard target like wood.

Thanks for the comments.

NJ

 

[kuger]

Now thats cool...on both counts!!!

 

[JW]

I don't believe that is wood, what you may be looking at there is old steel with some sand and lead balls encased in it's rust.

I went to certain part of the coast of California where and old logging port had been established and no longer exists apart from a few foundations, some old piers from the dock and a pair of railroad tracks that jut out of the side of a cliff 30 feet above the beach level with another 10 to 15 feet of exposed cliff face above the tracks.

At the parking area before the mile or two walk to the water there was a small clearing in a meadow beside a stream that didn't look natural to me so I went to investigate. Besides the stream and at edge of the meadow were the same tracks just further away from the end of the line. The tracks had rusted into what looked like old growth lumber that had petrified with the exception that petrified wood is usually more like rock in nature and doesn't flake like rust does.

So here is where I am going. The rusted track was finely layered almost like paper stacked upon itself thousands of times... I would venture a guess that steel that has been hot forged and processed for strength tends to develop layers and rust along these layers where the tempering of steel changes the matrix and chemical consistency and the parts that have different hardnesses break down at different rates... This would rust like your photo and the railroad segment that I found.

I would say your chunk of rusted steel was processed to some degree for strength based on the layering visible in the photos. Perhaps a sidelock part? Possibly a frizzen or an arm? Maybe even part of a barrel...! Who knows but I don't believe it is wood.

I'll see if I still have that chunk of steel.

HH

JW

 

[Darren in NC]

Any date on the cob? Awesome finds!

 

[romeo-1]

I'd take a cob over 400 musketballs! Nice silver.

 

[Iron Patch]

I'd take a cob over 400 musketballs! Nice silver.

There are people who have found 400 and no cob.... The Patriot for one! That seems to be a hard one to cross off the list but considering your area it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think AA has found one or two.

 

[N.J.THer]

I'd take a cob over 400 musketballs! Nice silver.

There are people who have found 400 and no cob.... The Patriot for one! That seems to be a hard one to cross off the list but considering your area it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think AA has found one or two.

I've been lucky enough to find two cobs in the last 12 months. One on dry land in NJ and one at the beach in NC. I've also found lots of musketballs in NJ but I like the mystery of trying to figure out what happened to the musketballs to get them into the condition they are now.

The funny thing is that my metal detecting club acquired Dan Sedwick's book 'The Pratical Book of Cobs' a little over a year ago. I've been hunting for years with no cobs then after reading the book I found two. I'm going to have to check with Dan to see if he has a book on gold coins...lol. I do recommend the book plus Dan is a super nice guy.

 

[N.J.THer]

I don't believe that is wood, what you may be looking at there is old steel with some sand and lead balls encased in it's rust.

I went to certain part of the coast of California where and old logging port had been established and no longer exists apart from a few foundations, some old piers from the dock and a pair of railroad tracks that jut out of the side of a cliff 30 feet above the beach level with another 10 to 15 feet of exposed cliff face above the tracks.

At the parking area before the mile or two walk to the water there was a small clearing in a meadow beside a stream that didn't look natural to me so I went to investigate. Besides the stream and at edge of the meadow were the same tracks just further away from the end of the line. The tracks had rusted into what looked like old growth lumber that had petrified with the exception that petrified wood is usually more like rock in nature and doesn't flake like rust does.

So here is where I am going. The rusted track was finely layered almost like paper stacked upon itself thousands of times... I would venture a guess that steel that has been hot forged and processed for strength tends to develop layers and rust along these layers where the tempering of steel changes the matrix and chemical consistency and the parts that have different hardnesses break down at different rates... This would rust like your photo and the railroad segment that I found.

I would say your chunk of rusted steel was processed to some degree for strength based on the layering visible in the photos. Perhaps a sidelock part? Possibly a frizzen or an arm? Maybe even part of a barrel...! Who knows but I don't believe it is wood.

I'll see if I still have that chunk of steel.

HH

JW

Intersting JW...if you do have the pictures of the tracks I would like to see them. I'm going to send some pictures up to one of the guys that works on the Whydah wreck to get their opinion.

 

[Iron Patch]

I'd take a cob over 400 musketballs! Nice silver.

There are people who have found 400 and no cob.... The Patriot for one! That seems to be a hard one to cross off the list but considering your area it shouldn't be too much of a problem. I think AA has found one or two.

I've been lucky enough to find two cobs in the last 12 months. One on dry land in NJ and one at the beach in NC. I've also found lots of musketballs in NJ but I like the mystery of trying to figure out what happened to the musketballs to get them into the condition they are now.

The funny thing is that my metal detecting club acquired Dan Sedwick's book 'The Pratical Book of Cobs' a little over a year ago. I've been hunting for years with no cobs then after reading the book I found two. I'm going to have to check with Dan to see if he has a book on gold coins...lol. I do recommend the book plus Dan is a super nice guy.

If (huge if) I can find two this year I think that puts my average to one a year which is extremely good for here. I believe there's 4 of us doing a hunt soon at a place that is the exact time frame to turn up a cob.... so maybe #1 is right around the corner.

 

[N.J.THer]

Thanks everyone for your comments. Do you think I should try to clean it or leave it as is? I usually leave my finds as I find them unless they need to be stablized to preserve them.

NJ

 

[sscindercoop]

Cool finds

 

[N.J.THer]

Good luck IP on that hunt.

I've been going to this beach in NC for a few years and I knew there were shipwreck coins there but I never could find one. Since I do 99% of my hunting on land I feel like my White's DFX is an extension of my body. When I got the Minelab Excalibur it really threw me for a loop. I would use it for a hour or so then get frustrated and grab the White's. This trip I did not take the White's to eliminate that crutch and something clicked and I got on a tear with the Ex cal. The cob, musketballs, rings, clad and very little junk. I was so desperate with the Ex cal I purchased a CD of the sounds the machine makes so I could listen to it in the car while I drive to train my ear. I guess it all worked.

 

[Iron Patch]

Good luck IP on that hunt.

I've been going to this beach in NC for a few years and I knew there were shipwreck coins there but I never could find one. Since I do 99% of my hunting on land I feel like my White's DFX is an extension of my body. When I got the Minelab Excalibur it really threw me for a loop. I would use it for a hour or so then get frustrated and grab the White's. This trip I did not take the White's to eliminate that crutch and something clicked and I got on a tear with the Ex cal. The cob, musketballs, rings, clad and very little junk. I was so desperate with the Ex cal I purchased a CD of the sounds the machine makes so I could listen to it in the car while I drive to train my ear. I guess it all worked.

Thanks! I'm looking forward to the hunt. It was getting quiet, but was plowed, and is a pretty big spot so if there's 4 of us digging I think we'll see a good find. Here's our finds from two hunts last year. It's probably one of the better old sites we've found in several years, just wish every day could be like the first!

The Explorer was quite a change from my GTI but did get a whole lot better.