Hello All,
Now that all the holes have been dug, and the finds (except for an iron relic backlog) have been cleaned and organized by site, here are the amazing totals from 2021. I still can't believe the quality and quantity of finds I made this year!
First off, here are the display cases from the site I call "Nickel Field" since we dug 14 shield nickels there (and numerous V's and buffaloes!). The finds from this field were just tremendous, although it is exceedingly hard to work through due to the massive amounts of iron there. Keep in mind that this is only MY display cases--not including the tons of finds my digging buddy made! Highlights: Two Louisiana CW buttons and numerous other CW buttons, a Morgan Dollar eyeball find, Civil War era silver "twin heart" ring stamped "COIN," spurs, seated silvers, half a 4 Reales, a big fat counterfeit Mexican Republic 8 Reales, a bayonet eyeball find (see below in the iron relics photo), a saxhorn mouthpiece, and an infantry bugle mouthpiece (evidently the brass band was there LOL):
Next we have a field where there used to be a plantation dating to the 1790s, visited by troops during the CW. I dug a gold mourning brooch there which says "IN MEMORY OF" and dates to c.1830-40. It would've had a lock of hair in the center, and black lacquer on the front. Other highlights were more civil war relics, spurs, bullets, buttons, and the wire keeper from a prewar militia plate.
A weird little site I found by eyeballing the hypothetical intersection of two roads which didn't appear on maps (yeah, I'm weird). Neither road was still there, just fields now. I just kinda imagined where they might intersect if they did. I got out there and after some extreme wandering found a couple of iron blips and so I focused in that area and recovered the four seated coins the first hunt and the spanish silver the second trip
Next of all we have two display cases from a field that has been VERY good to us in the past. It was the site of a plantation complex which dated from the 1830s and had a lot of CW activity in and around the area during the Yankee occupation. This field was short on giving up seated silvers in 2021, but maaaaan did it pay off in unexpected ways! I dug a nice little piece of gold bearing the initials of a past plantation owner, along with a SECOND gold mourning brooch--this one has the crystal intact (although broken) and it dates 1860-1890 due to the tube hinge on the back. In addition I recovered TWO GW inaugural buttons from this field! One was a GWI 17B which wasn't in great condition but nonetheless is an outstanding piece of history. The other is a GWI 27A, which is a backmark button with Washinton's name and 15 stars to honor Kentucky's admittance into the US, along with a federal style eagle. I also got my first ever half cent, an 1809 classic head, from this field (coppers don't turn up often in the deep south).
More from this field, including a silver thimble I had restored:
The two George Washington Inaugural buttons. First, the LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT button, followed by the backmark "Birthday Button" of 1799 which is incredibly rare with the shank intact (two examples with shank known; 6-12 examples known):
My wife's display case from 2021. She has the passion, but not the time to dig--although the detector upgrade I got her for Christmas has her fired up again!
The results of a hunt at our Colonial Tavern site. Finds are getting thin, but judging by the sheer numbers of treasures dug there (nearly 50 spanish silvers and 65 seated coins, plus military buttons from colonial times, war of 1812, early militia, and Civil War), we always count on it for a backup. I did dig an old piece of an engraved gold snuff box.
A hunt at a site we call "button field" where dozens of military buttons have come up. I dug a nice little silver, and a melted blob of silver in the shape of a human heart (weighs as much as a silver quarter)
We also started eyeballing sites that may be old enough to dig, but are too trashy to waste our time with digging ourselves to death on. Did great in the eyeball department this year! We found a few marbles LOL (record haul was 83 between my wife and I in one day). Some nicer ones without plow damage we have in a marble display. These are the culls:
The :eyeball box." No find was dug with a detector. Silver coins, flat buttons, the sapphire stone from a ring, clock and pocketwatches and pieces, tokens, pins, brooches, jewelry, clay pipes, beads, cap badges, and more:
A few hunts from sites that didn't hold much, or were worked out previously. Highlight was the c1880 Philadelphia & Reading Railroad switch key, shield nickel with a date, and the eagle cuff button.
Some of the larger items that wouldn't fit in the display cases, including a Mass Arms brass bullet mold for the .36 cal Remington Revolver, a brass barrel for a .32 cal Otis A. Smith rimfire pistol, and a South Pacific Coast Railroad Lock that I used a hybrid technique of digging and eyeballing a trashy site to find, assorted hammers from lock plates, bottles, and the bronze Cupid figure from a French mantle clock c.1860 and the tenor saxhorn mouthpiece which I dug in "nickel field." We recovered another 63 bottles, but most of them were modern small perfume bottles, Christmas Cokes, and others from the 1920s-60s which managed to dodge the plow:
And the iron finds which I fished out of the distilled water soak which I do to remove the salts before electrolysis…we dug TWO double barrel shotguns in 2021 (one was dug by my friend Trucknuts), but only mine is pictured below. Crazy thing though--since New Year's I've dug TWO more shotguns in 2022! Also pictured is the amazing M1816 Springfield bayonet which I eyeballed in a sugar cane field
Here were our year end totals from my signature line:
2021 CaneField Bandits Totals:
1820s-30s Gold Mourning Brooch
Diamond solitaire ring from the beach
GWI 17B George Washington Inaugural Button
GWI 27A George Washington Inaugural Button
engraved piece of a colonial era gold item
c.1870-80 Otis A. Smith .32cal rimfire pistol
bullet mold "MASS ARMS CO" for the .36cal Adams Patent Revolver
South Pacific Coast Railroad Lock 1876-1887
Two Louisiana pelican coat buttons
hammer from a percussion double barrel shotgun
Four cartridge box finials
New York coat button
Eagle Infantry cuff button
Three eagle Infantry coat buttons
Two general service eagle cuff buttons
musket sling hook and trigger guard fragments
1900-O Morgan Dollar
1876-CC Seated Quarter
1809 Classic Head Half Cent
1845 Large Cent
1809 and one dateless half real
Counterfeit 8 Reales
1850-O, 1875, two 1887’s and two dateless Seated Dimes
1839, 1839-O, two 1848’s, 1848-O, 1851, two 1851-O’s, 1853-O, two 1855-O’s, two 1857-O, 1858-O and three dateless half dimes
1895-S Barber Dime (dug by KFB) and 1907 Barber Dime
1944 10 Centimes Philippine Occupation Coin
1952 Roosevelt Dime
Two silver thimbles
Quarter ounce of melted silver from a planation site
Antebellum silver ring fragment
1850s silver twin heart ring
Two Silver religious medallions
Seven 1943-P a 1944-P and a 1944-D war nickels
a dateless Mercury Dime
Two CW era shield shaped brass luggage tags with Louisiana Pelicans
Bronze figurine from a mid 1800s French mantle clock
Two double barrel shotguns
Tenor or Baritone saxhorn mouthpiece
Infantry bugle mouthpiece
Minieballs, Beefaloes, V and Shield Nickels, and some GawGag
Happy Digging to ALL of you in 2022! I wish you success, happiness and health in 2022!
Cheers,
Buck
Now that all the holes have been dug, and the finds (except for an iron relic backlog) have been cleaned and organized by site, here are the amazing totals from 2021. I still can't believe the quality and quantity of finds I made this year!
First off, here are the display cases from the site I call "Nickel Field" since we dug 14 shield nickels there (and numerous V's and buffaloes!). The finds from this field were just tremendous, although it is exceedingly hard to work through due to the massive amounts of iron there. Keep in mind that this is only MY display cases--not including the tons of finds my digging buddy made! Highlights: Two Louisiana CW buttons and numerous other CW buttons, a Morgan Dollar eyeball find, Civil War era silver "twin heart" ring stamped "COIN," spurs, seated silvers, half a 4 Reales, a big fat counterfeit Mexican Republic 8 Reales, a bayonet eyeball find (see below in the iron relics photo), a saxhorn mouthpiece, and an infantry bugle mouthpiece (evidently the brass band was there LOL):
Next we have a field where there used to be a plantation dating to the 1790s, visited by troops during the CW. I dug a gold mourning brooch there which says "IN MEMORY OF" and dates to c.1830-40. It would've had a lock of hair in the center, and black lacquer on the front. Other highlights were more civil war relics, spurs, bullets, buttons, and the wire keeper from a prewar militia plate.
A weird little site I found by eyeballing the hypothetical intersection of two roads which didn't appear on maps (yeah, I'm weird). Neither road was still there, just fields now. I just kinda imagined where they might intersect if they did. I got out there and after some extreme wandering found a couple of iron blips and so I focused in that area and recovered the four seated coins the first hunt and the spanish silver the second trip
Next of all we have two display cases from a field that has been VERY good to us in the past. It was the site of a plantation complex which dated from the 1830s and had a lot of CW activity in and around the area during the Yankee occupation. This field was short on giving up seated silvers in 2021, but maaaaan did it pay off in unexpected ways! I dug a nice little piece of gold bearing the initials of a past plantation owner, along with a SECOND gold mourning brooch--this one has the crystal intact (although broken) and it dates 1860-1890 due to the tube hinge on the back. In addition I recovered TWO GW inaugural buttons from this field! One was a GWI 17B which wasn't in great condition but nonetheless is an outstanding piece of history. The other is a GWI 27A, which is a backmark button with Washinton's name and 15 stars to honor Kentucky's admittance into the US, along with a federal style eagle. I also got my first ever half cent, an 1809 classic head, from this field (coppers don't turn up often in the deep south).
More from this field, including a silver thimble I had restored:
The two George Washington Inaugural buttons. First, the LONG LIVE THE PRESIDENT button, followed by the backmark "Birthday Button" of 1799 which is incredibly rare with the shank intact (two examples with shank known; 6-12 examples known):
My wife's display case from 2021. She has the passion, but not the time to dig--although the detector upgrade I got her for Christmas has her fired up again!
The results of a hunt at our Colonial Tavern site. Finds are getting thin, but judging by the sheer numbers of treasures dug there (nearly 50 spanish silvers and 65 seated coins, plus military buttons from colonial times, war of 1812, early militia, and Civil War), we always count on it for a backup. I did dig an old piece of an engraved gold snuff box.
A hunt at a site we call "button field" where dozens of military buttons have come up. I dug a nice little silver, and a melted blob of silver in the shape of a human heart (weighs as much as a silver quarter)
We also started eyeballing sites that may be old enough to dig, but are too trashy to waste our time with digging ourselves to death on. Did great in the eyeball department this year! We found a few marbles LOL (record haul was 83 between my wife and I in one day). Some nicer ones without plow damage we have in a marble display. These are the culls:
The :eyeball box." No find was dug with a detector. Silver coins, flat buttons, the sapphire stone from a ring, clock and pocketwatches and pieces, tokens, pins, brooches, jewelry, clay pipes, beads, cap badges, and more:
A few hunts from sites that didn't hold much, or were worked out previously. Highlight was the c1880 Philadelphia & Reading Railroad switch key, shield nickel with a date, and the eagle cuff button.
Some of the larger items that wouldn't fit in the display cases, including a Mass Arms brass bullet mold for the .36 cal Remington Revolver, a brass barrel for a .32 cal Otis A. Smith rimfire pistol, and a South Pacific Coast Railroad Lock that I used a hybrid technique of digging and eyeballing a trashy site to find, assorted hammers from lock plates, bottles, and the bronze Cupid figure from a French mantle clock c.1860 and the tenor saxhorn mouthpiece which I dug in "nickel field." We recovered another 63 bottles, but most of them were modern small perfume bottles, Christmas Cokes, and others from the 1920s-60s which managed to dodge the plow:
And the iron finds which I fished out of the distilled water soak which I do to remove the salts before electrolysis…we dug TWO double barrel shotguns in 2021 (one was dug by my friend Trucknuts), but only mine is pictured below. Crazy thing though--since New Year's I've dug TWO more shotguns in 2022! Also pictured is the amazing M1816 Springfield bayonet which I eyeballed in a sugar cane field
Here were our year end totals from my signature line:
2021 CaneField Bandits Totals:
1820s-30s Gold Mourning Brooch
Diamond solitaire ring from the beach
GWI 17B George Washington Inaugural Button
GWI 27A George Washington Inaugural Button
engraved piece of a colonial era gold item
c.1870-80 Otis A. Smith .32cal rimfire pistol
bullet mold "MASS ARMS CO" for the .36cal Adams Patent Revolver
South Pacific Coast Railroad Lock 1876-1887
Two Louisiana pelican coat buttons
hammer from a percussion double barrel shotgun
Four cartridge box finials
New York coat button
Eagle Infantry cuff button
Three eagle Infantry coat buttons
Two general service eagle cuff buttons
musket sling hook and trigger guard fragments
1900-O Morgan Dollar
1876-CC Seated Quarter
1809 Classic Head Half Cent
1845 Large Cent
1809 and one dateless half real
Counterfeit 8 Reales
1850-O, 1875, two 1887’s and two dateless Seated Dimes
1839, 1839-O, two 1848’s, 1848-O, 1851, two 1851-O’s, 1853-O, two 1855-O’s, two 1857-O, 1858-O and three dateless half dimes
1895-S Barber Dime (dug by KFB) and 1907 Barber Dime
1944 10 Centimes Philippine Occupation Coin
1952 Roosevelt Dime
Two silver thimbles
Quarter ounce of melted silver from a planation site
Antebellum silver ring fragment
1850s silver twin heart ring
Two Silver religious medallions
Seven 1943-P a 1944-P and a 1944-D war nickels
a dateless Mercury Dime
Two CW era shield shaped brass luggage tags with Louisiana Pelicans
Bronze figurine from a mid 1800s French mantle clock
Two double barrel shotguns
Tenor or Baritone saxhorn mouthpiece
Infantry bugle mouthpiece
Minieballs, Beefaloes, V and Shield Nickels, and some GawGag
Happy Digging to ALL of you in 2022! I wish you success, happiness and health in 2022!
Cheers,
Buck
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