A Few Recent Finds; 1917 Merc, WWII Button, Silver Jewelry, Swastika Coin & More.....

[Garrett424]

A Few Recent Finds; 1917 Merc, WWII Button, Silver Jewelry, Swastika Coin & More.....

So I recently got a couple of new permissions at a couple of pretty old houses.
The first is a Victorian mansion that some other dude went in and hunted before me without permission. I actually talked to the guy and he lied right to my face about having permission. I later met the owner, who was really nice, really friendly and very pretty. She told me that she never even spoke to the guy and never even knew had had been on the place.

So anyway, she had sold the property and was moving to TX (a "free country" according to her) and I had only two evenings to hunt it before the new owners were coming in. Unfortunately the other dude cherry picked the place but I did manage to find a few things he missed. He was using an Ace 350 and hunted the place for at least a few days. But; I had a feeling the Omega may find something the Ace passed over.

So after poking around a while I dug a large coin I initially thought was an LC but when I brushed it off I saw a swastika on it. So I thought it was some kind of Nazi relic but when I flipped it over I realized it's actually a good luck charm that apparently came with a walking, talking "Madame Hendren" baby doll from the 1920's. It also has a horseshoe, a four leaf clover and a hole so it can be worn on a chain......



I've seen another just like it on T'Net from a few years ago. Dunno' how often these things turn up but I thought it was a cool find.

Then I hunted a flowerbed area and got another "pull tab" signal. Of course, I dug it and out of the hole popped this.....



...a Waterbury military uniform button. From what I've been able to find out it may be a WWII era button. It's in great shape so I was real happy with that one.

Then I got another faint, sorta' bouncy high hit and about 6 inches down on it's side I found this....



.....a silver, Egyptian "Eye of Horus" necklace with a Cobra and various hieroglyphics inscribed on it. There's a really tiny makers mark in the lower left' barely visible. It's in Arabic so I believe it may actually be Egyptian. I need to do a little research on that one. I have no clue as to it's age but it could be from the Egyptian revival era (or not). It was on a very fine chain that looks silver as well but I'm not sure yet. I need to do a little more work with that one too.

And speaking of "eyes". I also dug this on a very short, pre storm hunt at a soccer field just last night. I just had to throw it in.....



.....a .925 eyeball earring with a .925 clasp. You just never know what's gonna' turn up next. I actually posted that one in a separate thread but what the hell.

So at another old house location I was able to get in maybe an hour of hunting. I immediately dug two buffalo nickels which I don't have pics of. Then I dug this....



..a gold plated Jesus and Mary medal. This one looks pretty old. These medals just keep appearing lately.

Then there was another nice high, faint hit that yielded my one and only silver coin (so far) from either site......



...a 1917 Merc'. That's my oldest one yet so I was happy with it.

And last but not least, after having dug many, many keys, I finally dug my first "keyhole".....



An interesting find if nothing else. I also dug about 6 wheaties but haven't gotten pics of those either at this point. There were a few other items but nothing extraordinary and of course; lots and lots of TRASH.

Now for the group shot......





That's about it for now. I WISH I had been able to hit the Victorian site more but that's not likely to happen any time soon; if ever. The other site still has potential. I plan on getting back maybe this weekend. I've also been working on two more permissions and at least one is in the bag. I'm still waiting on the other one. Both are late 1800 to early 1900 rural homes and both look like good spots to me. We shall see.

I guess that's about it for now.
Thanks for looking & HH.......

 

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[A2coins]

That looks like a little bit of treasure. Good job asking for permission its the way to go...Great finds!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[trapperart]

Congrats on some nice finds

 

[Gridwalker306]

Nice finds and great write up. Too bad about the other guy sneaking and lying, at least you made some good finds anyway.

 

[Garrett424]

Nice finds and great write up. Too bad about the other guy sneaking and lying, at least you made some good finds anyway.

Thanks.

Yeah, and to make matters worse, he found a beautiful 1943 silver half dollar that shoulda' been mine. I've been wanting to hunt that site for two years but never got the chance for a number of reasons; some of them beyond my control and some not. In the end it was just bad timing but at least I was able to get in there for a little while. Unfortunately, it was AFTER the site was cherry picked.

I posted a thread about that experience and the lesson learned. At the time I posted the thread I was beating myself up for procrastinating on getting permission because I thought he had legitimately beaten my to it fair and square. It was only later that I learned he was a lying carpetbagger in my immediate territory.

I'm a REALLY laid back person but that whole experience really irritated me. But again, the lesson is learned regardless. The hard lessons are the ones we NEVER forget so as far as the big picture goes, some negative experiences are blessings in disguise and that includes this one. After the incident I scored three new permissions in under a week. I'm not waiting around anymore and losing out if I can help it.

I could have easily walked onto that site because the house was vacated for several months. But I watched and waited until someone was there. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tempted but I didn't act on my temptation. I do try and do the right thing most of the time. I would never actually walk onto someone's private property to an actual house without permission like this guy did. I can see maybe wandering through a secluded, unused field or something but not in someone's back yard.

I have to admit, the dude has balls; that's for sure. He was downright brazen. I have a feeling this wasn't an isolated incident. Maybe if you keep getting away with it it gets easier each time.

But, almost no one in my area is into detecting and I'm not used to having competition. I guess I've been a little spoiled. Since June of 2014 this was the first guy I ever ran into in the field and in my own neighborhood. I've ran into one other guy who teaches kids to detect at his church, which just happens to be the property of an old Catholic school house I attended in the first grade. He gave me permission for that site and I've hunted it a few times with a little success.

I do know one thing; I'm no longer taking anything for granted; that's for certain. If you snooze you WILL lose sooner or later.
Thanks again....

 

[against the wind]

Nice bunch of finds. You did good.
This poaching goes on all the time and has been going on for some time. Even though we have a Permit system for NYC Parks there are still some who will circumvent the process. I don't have a problem with these characters getting caught and fined, but I do have a problem with the stain it puts on the rest of us.
Thanks for doing it the right way.

 

[VWandSTUDEBAKER]

Nice find on the token. Its amazing how many people do not know the real history of the swastika. Its thousands of years old and have even been used by our own military, boy scouts and Native Americans. LOTS of stores and places used the swastika on tokens and as you can see, its considered a good luck symbol.

I can give you lots of links to show what it really means if you want, or do your own research. These tokens are on ebay all the time and depending on how scarce they are, they are all different prices.

I have and wear Native American jewelry with the "rolling logs" on it and have to educate people all the time.

 

[BigWaveDave]

I followed this thread, from your lesson learned thread...wow. The other guy? What a tool... The Egyptian piece is sweet.

 

[Garrett424]

I followed this thread, from your lesson learned thread...wow. The other guy? What a tool... The Egyptian piece is sweet.

Thanks. I like the Egyptian piece myself. At first I thought it was fairly modern but now I'm not so sure.

It's a popular design but a pretty old design as well. It was definitely on the deep side too and looked like it had been there a while.

I did learn that the Egyptian hallmark means ".800 silver" in Arabic so it's not quite as pure as what we usually come across. I'll take it though. I'm pretty sure the chain is also silver and probably .800 as well.

Next I wanna' figure out what those hieroglyphics mean.