1/2 dime, 1/2 reale and total finds from my colonial site

[silversweeper]

Have been waiting since late last summer for this field to get turned over so I could get back to my Colonial site. I hunted it off and on in the corn stubble during the fall/winter but it was rough going. The land owner called me a couple of weeks ago and let me know that the ground had been plowed/disced so I got up at the crack of dawn the next day and hit it as hard as I could for about 3 hours. Not long into my hunt I got a deep iffy signal and got the 1/2 dime. I didn't clean it off until I got home but I could see one edge was slightly bent under the dirt so I knew it was probably damaged.....oh well, still a great find and only my second 1/2 dime. Turned out later to be my first seated 1/2 dime and has a small scratch on the back from something that hit it in the past. For the next few hours I dug several nice Colonial buttons, including the nice big dandy button with a starburst pattern etched into the front which still has silver gilt in it. My last signal on the way to the van (how many times have you heard that?!!) was only about 3 inches deep and turned out to be the worn and holed 1/2 reale. Date is 179?. Old coin for this area. A few days later I went back in the hopes of finding more spectacular finds like on my earlier hunt but turns out I was just lucky that first day. I've found probably 12 more buttons and some assorted lead but nothing great. Did get a badly corroded brass wedding band (which fulfilled my wish for a personal item for the year) and also a General Service Staff cuff button Civil War era (also fulfilling a wish, for a military button). I've included pictures of my total finds from this site so far from the last year plus (minus most of the lead and pistol round balls which I've kept seperate, and the coins which consisted of one large cent, one seated dime, 2 broken seated 1/2 dimes, 1 capped 1834 1/2 dime, and the 1/2 seated dime and 1/2 reale). One of my favorite finds is the little pressed and gilded horse. It may have been a unicorn but I'm guessing it was probably applied to a piece of wood and used as a child's toy perhaps....who knows. Keep hoping that I will find more parts to it. The 2 keg tappers in the display came from another site. Happy Hunting to all of you!

 

[DFW_THer]

fantastic.

 

[JohnnyMac]

Great hunt!

 

[wvwildman]

nice finds congrats HH

 

[GioTheGreek]

What a display!

Great job sniffing out those little halfs. Did you find them on the Etrac? If so, what was the conductive TID?

Thanks for sharing.

 

[CASPER-2]

 

[vpnavy]

Nice finds silversweeper.

 

[silversweeper]

What a display!

Great job sniffing out those little halfs. Did you find them on the Etrac? If so, what was the conductive TID?

Thanks for sharing.

I did find the 2 coins with the etrac. I hunted the site with my CTX 3030 a couple of times as well. Picked up buttons and bullets with both. Honestly can't tell you what the numbers were on the etrac for the coins. In this field I did every conductive signal and seldom even look at the screen. I use my 13 inch ultimate and push the sensitivity up to about 27 so the numbers on signals are seldom real accurate in any case. If I get a chance, I'll rescan the coins the next time I get ready to go detecting and let you know where the numbers fall.
Happy Hunting!

 

[Wildcat1750]

What a nice variety of finds...they look great displayed together!

 

[63bkpkr]

Really a bunch of nice finds! The display case does all of them justice. I've never found coins that old but then I have found gold nuggets and though they are not dated they are old. Great finds, thank you for sharing them........................63bkpkr

 

[cntrydncr1]

awesome!! looks like you have a great site!

 

[Evolution]

Great site and great finds. I like the dandy button.

 

[Bill D. (VA)]

Nice bunch of early finds. Congrats on the colonial silver!

 

[joeyfresh]

Great antebellum finds! Love the assortment of buttons and of course the spanish silver.