tigerbeetle
Full Member
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2009
- Messages
- 166
- Reaction score
- 275
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Jersey Shore
- Detector(s) used
- Many -- Fisher, White's, Minelab, Cobra, others
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
Tuesday, December 30, 08: Type of Hunt: Metal Detecting. Area: Coastal Southern Ocean County, NJ. Conditions: Clear skies, temps in the 40s, dry.
Well, I’m hoping to work my way back into this site, though I’ve doing a lot of treasure writing for possible book.
This blog focuses on a couple fairly fascinating just-dug finds.
Area resident and local history buff historian Russ M. took me to an overgrown one-time homestead located on a hard-packed unpaved road, which is now being build-out rapidly (by well-heeled folks). In fact, the area is located across the road from a very fine new home – and an adjacent manmade lake.
The site wasn’t much to look at. It was little more than a vague clearing with some nonindigenous vegetation covering an area maybe 125 feet (adjacent to the road) by 75 feet (into the woods, where the pines take over gain). However, an experienced TH’ing eye could easily see the vegetative indicators pointing to a long-term human intrusion thereabouts. Still, the site was hardly screaming, “Hunt me!”
Walking into the area, my first visual saw the entire zone had been surface plowed, marked by mounds of pushed dirt piled into a long mound along a nearby hollow. That work had been done many decades back. No guess as to why. While it is never the best thing to have an area plowed over, occasionally just such a surface scraping can be a boon to TH’ing, as much surface junk is removed. Such was the case here – big time.
I have to admit that after 4 decades of detecting, I have never been a quick-find person. I seemingly have to work long and hard for any and every great find. So it was a shocker to have my first solid reading of the day come up big. A large “good” reading led to a find maybe 6 inches down.
After initial dirt removal, I saw my find was heavy brass and roughly rectangular. There was some sort of a hook showing. The significance of the hook didn’t register at first. It became clear when I turned it over and found a gorgeous eagle staring at me. I had found a fabulous brass belt buckle, the back hook being typical of such belts.
My first guess placed it somewhere in the Federal Period, my favorite age in American history. However, Russ (a Civil War aficionado) immediately thought War Between the States. I was highly intrigued, since Civil War items are just about nonexistent in our part of NJ. However, even in the field that day, both of us rethought the find and agreed it was significantly older – as would be the case. His reason for his initial Civil War dating became crystal clear when Russ later showed me almost identical buckles from that conflict. This buckle, though, simply had an older look -- just a feel, as it were.
However, things were to get way more Civil War-ish as the hunt progressed.
Soon after the buckle, I began to find items totally typical of the Federal Period. Having specialized in that time frame since I began TH’ing, I know the look and feel of damn near everything from then. The detector led to one-piece buttons, suspender grips, pewter flatware (from an earlier time but discarded during Federal times) and oddities (always a part of any dig), clearly indicating the site dated back to maybe 1800.
Then, things took an astounding turn back to the Civil War. No sooner had we dismissed my brass belt buckle as being prebellum, I pop out a beyond-rare-for-NJ “U.S.” belt buckle face. The lead had been melted out of it. It was a fully stunning find – and a first for me. It was made odder by the fact we had at first misread the first buckle as Civil War only to have another one surface that left no doubt about its ancestry.
An expert read on the first belt buckle came from Gary Williams of the Hanover Brass Foundry, Maryland (http://hanoverbrass.com).
Gary emailed me, “Jay, You have a 1815-1825 Militia belt plate. Several have been dug from civil war sites. I dug one years ago in a confederate camp at Dutch Gap. Some were silvered plated. A very nice plate and seems luck is with you. GW.”
As for the “U.S. buckle, Gary wrote, “U.S. face plate that the lead is melted out. Nice brass face.”
Blog site is http://digtreasure.ning.com.
Well, I’m hoping to work my way back into this site, though I’ve doing a lot of treasure writing for possible book.
This blog focuses on a couple fairly fascinating just-dug finds.
Area resident and local history buff historian Russ M. took me to an overgrown one-time homestead located on a hard-packed unpaved road, which is now being build-out rapidly (by well-heeled folks). In fact, the area is located across the road from a very fine new home – and an adjacent manmade lake.
The site wasn’t much to look at. It was little more than a vague clearing with some nonindigenous vegetation covering an area maybe 125 feet (adjacent to the road) by 75 feet (into the woods, where the pines take over gain). However, an experienced TH’ing eye could easily see the vegetative indicators pointing to a long-term human intrusion thereabouts. Still, the site was hardly screaming, “Hunt me!”
Walking into the area, my first visual saw the entire zone had been surface plowed, marked by mounds of pushed dirt piled into a long mound along a nearby hollow. That work had been done many decades back. No guess as to why. While it is never the best thing to have an area plowed over, occasionally just such a surface scraping can be a boon to TH’ing, as much surface junk is removed. Such was the case here – big time.
I have to admit that after 4 decades of detecting, I have never been a quick-find person. I seemingly have to work long and hard for any and every great find. So it was a shocker to have my first solid reading of the day come up big. A large “good” reading led to a find maybe 6 inches down.
After initial dirt removal, I saw my find was heavy brass and roughly rectangular. There was some sort of a hook showing. The significance of the hook didn’t register at first. It became clear when I turned it over and found a gorgeous eagle staring at me. I had found a fabulous brass belt buckle, the back hook being typical of such belts.
My first guess placed it somewhere in the Federal Period, my favorite age in American history. However, Russ (a Civil War aficionado) immediately thought War Between the States. I was highly intrigued, since Civil War items are just about nonexistent in our part of NJ. However, even in the field that day, both of us rethought the find and agreed it was significantly older – as would be the case. His reason for his initial Civil War dating became crystal clear when Russ later showed me almost identical buckles from that conflict. This buckle, though, simply had an older look -- just a feel, as it were.
However, things were to get way more Civil War-ish as the hunt progressed.
Soon after the buckle, I began to find items totally typical of the Federal Period. Having specialized in that time frame since I began TH’ing, I know the look and feel of damn near everything from then. The detector led to one-piece buttons, suspender grips, pewter flatware (from an earlier time but discarded during Federal times) and oddities (always a part of any dig), clearly indicating the site dated back to maybe 1800.
Then, things took an astounding turn back to the Civil War. No sooner had we dismissed my brass belt buckle as being prebellum, I pop out a beyond-rare-for-NJ “U.S.” belt buckle face. The lead had been melted out of it. It was a fully stunning find – and a first for me. It was made odder by the fact we had at first misread the first buckle as Civil War only to have another one surface that left no doubt about its ancestry.
An expert read on the first belt buckle came from Gary Williams of the Hanover Brass Foundry, Maryland (http://hanoverbrass.com).
Gary emailed me, “Jay, You have a 1815-1825 Militia belt plate. Several have been dug from civil war sites. I dug one years ago in a confederate camp at Dutch Gap. Some were silvered plated. A very nice plate and seems luck is with you. GW.”
As for the “U.S. buckle, Gary wrote, “U.S. face plate that the lead is melted out. Nice brass face.”
Blog site is http://digtreasure.ning.com.
Amazon Forum Fav 👍
Upvote
0
