Top Treasure Finds

Last week I attended the invitational DIV hunt in beautiful Culpeper, VA and had a great time as always. This was on my bucket list and I was so excited to find it. At first I thought it was a large cent then I showed it to my buddies James Bibb and Josh (Sentinel) right after I dug it and James cleaned a little to reveal some of the detail. That was when we recognized it was an ID tag. The name on the tag is Frank Ritz Co. E 4th US INF ANTIETAM, FRED'K'SBURG, GAINS MILL, S. MOUNTAIN, MALV. HILL. The front still needs to be cleaned but I want to make sure it is cleaned properly as this is...

Only joking, it's US Colonial period. (April fools) Today I have some buttons

Sometimes, your best judgement is spot on....I had decided that before we started a new ploughed field we should give the nearby park a quick hour or so explore. Its a larged grassed area that is mostly medieval ridge & furrow but has never been ploughed since so we generally don't bother with it. However, because it was close to a large late 18th C 'manor type' house, I wanted to see if we could get some nice Georgian Buckles or the odd coin, hoping they would be in nicer condition than their...

Yesterday was one of those days where you sometimes wonder if you are dreaming. I thought the spot I ws hunting was about played out. The pit I had dug wasn't producing anything so I once again, through the advice of Bill D. started to dig in aother area laden with iron signals. The digging is almost impossible with many roots that are 3 inches or more in diameter crisscrossing like fingers and I had to actual bring a hatchet to cut many of these. It started slow but after I don't know how many iron targets I finally got my first good sounding target just a little under 10 inches. And...

Went back to the fields with my Whites MXT while my DFX is being repaired. Forgot just how sensitive the MXT is when its cranked all the way up. Walking along the edges of the fields a weak high-low broken signal. I took an 8 inch divet out and scanned the hole, a loud high signal, it was still in the hole. I thought soda can slaw. Another 8 inches it was out of the hole. I used my pin pointer to knock away the dirt and I couldn't believe my eyes, lettering as clear as day, picture time. I pulled it from the pile and immediately started talking to myself, I think I was answering myself...

Got out with some buddies and we found a 5 acre field that was full of colonial buttons, I dug 32 myself. One of my friends got lucky dug a rare GW cuff button. I'll try to get a pic of it real soon, it's a rare one. Another friend dug a rev war button like mine and another dug a britsh 16th rgt and another dug a 60th . They went back today and got a rev war South Carolina 6th rgt. Here's mine. This button was lost by a member of the 1st South Carolina continental army and is called a dogbone one, as you can tell by the way the number 1 looks. This unit was qrganized in the summer of 1775...

Found this little beauty today. on the same field as the Silver Horse(posted 2 days ago)
this one is a silver denarius of Trajan.
Head side :: IMP CAES NER TRIANO OPTIMO AVG GER DAC::with laureate Bust Right ::
Other side:: PM TRP COSV1 SPQR :: With Bonus Eventus Standing Left.Holding Patera and Wheat ears :: Trajan Ruled from AD 98 to AD 117. Thanks for looking! Hutch.

OMG! Best coin find ever! My record oldest US dug coin! And it's silver!

Video link!


Today, I only had a few hours before dark to detect so I went back to the spot that I found trime yesterday! I had been gold panning so I was completely soaked up to the waist and partially up my back from the creek water. I detected about 30 minutes and they got completely dark but I was all the way at the back of the field so I decided to stay for a few more minutes and I'm sure glad I did! I got a repeatable coin signal...

I managed to find one of my best ring finds ever. Yes they are real...all 42 of them...18KT also.

I went to my first ever Diggin' in VA the past three days.... had a blast! Days 1 and 2 were spent digging a ton of bullets .... carved bullets... enfields... pistol bullets.... J hooks... buttons.... and an 1859 IH. All great items! But to be honest, I was hoping for one super good item to set it over the top.

Well... I got it on Saturday. After two dry days Saturday started with rains imminent, and me wondering how long I would hunt with my $5000 non-waterproof GPX5000 sealed up with a $.35 cent ziplock bag and duct tape! I had already decided that my son would keep...

I have not been posting much lately, this is down to searching for new land and the finds I have been making have been very sparse. But I think I might have found a decent area at last.
High on my wish list of finds has been a Saxon Penny and on Saturday I finally found one, these coins are struck on a large flan, usually about 20mm and usually cracked or damaged in some way...as is this one, although it's at the better end with all the legend. The coin is that of Eadgar, or sometimes spelled Edgar.

All I...