Mining Engineering student here! A couple of things I'd like to toss out. I have never worked at a gold mine, but I know people who have worked in the gold mine in Kershaw SC. The Mica Schists can be a vector for gold and I am pretty sure it would have to be in a native form, but I do not know...
The square holes are where cubic pyrite crystals weathered away and eventually fell out of the matrix rock, 100% natural. There have been similar river finds to this on here before, they are cool finds though!
I don't make out any crystal faces on your specimen. It appears to be a massive piece of something. More and better pictures would help with sorting it out!
Not unheard of to find Obsidian pieces in even the Atlantic states. I found a piece of raw obsidian amongst a great many native artifacts in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. Trade was prolific amongst the native peoples, it isn't hard for me to believe that pieces of obsidian would be found on...
Good point Yak, almost the entire retreat route for several miles that I know of was hunted in the late 90s by a group of guys who didn't care whose land they crossed, just followed the confederate wagon train. I am hearing this second hand from someone who talked to one of the guys who did it...
All bullets are union, but five different varieties so far (not including cleaners) and all drops, mixed in with equal amounts of camp lead. I want to grid out from this spot and see what turns up in the surrounding area. The land lays good for a camp, with easy access to water and two period...
So a site I have been hitting recently has raised a question for me. I have been hunting a site along Lee's retreat and have come across a spot that is about 50' x 50' that is loaded with bullets and camp lead. I go and dig maybe a dozen bullets and a dozen pieces of camp lead and then leave and...
Found this brass object close to the cleaner pictured on a short hunt this morning. Any idea what it is and how old? I noticed on the back side that there are two iron pins at the top and bottom. Thanks everybody!
I know that I am way tardy to the party on this one, but as a resident of Farmville I thought I could shed some light on this one. Battle of High Bridge would have been winding down more on the seventh, the action shifted north to Cumberland Church after the Yanks managed to take the bridge. Big...
If only I had a dollar for every pound of those things I have lugged around out of farm fields. Can't make myself pass that signal up in Civil War country lol. As for what I would do with it, I'd pray that was the last one I ever found, not really any use from a farming prospective anymore.