Shady Digger
Sr. Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2007
- Messages
- 266
- Reaction score
- 90
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Cool Ridge, WV
- Detector(s) used
- Tesoro Silver uMax
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting

I've spent the last 4 days with a friend of mine searching some new permissions from the late 19th/early 20th century and with ties to the Civil War here in Central WV. We didn't come away with a boatload of relics and coins as we had hoped but what we did find is really cool and includes a couple firsts! At one of the turn of the century houses, my buddy pulled his first IHP and this really awesome A.E.F. pin. Turns out this pin was given to American troops in WW1 after 6 months of service, I believe specifically in France.



While searching the same property, I found this really neat Lava soap token that's in great shape from the roots of an old maple tree next to the house's well. I was also able to find 6 Wheaties in this yard.


For the Civil War stuff, we were able to get access to an area of private property that we believed to have some troop movement from both Union and Confederate forces. We weren't too sure where to search, but figured near water is always a good bet, so we searched along a creek bank for a half mile or so. My first real signal was this really nice Oshkosh B'Gosh overall button in excellent shape. Old, but not what I was looking for!

Shortly after that, I pulled what appears to be a fired Williams cleaner round with the base intact and all bent up. My very first one! It looks like it impacted sideways, almost backwards. In that same general area, we found some smaller lead balls, a fired percussion cap, and this small two or three ring fired bullet that looks like it could be CW as well. It has a solid base and the nose is flattened, and I don't see any rifling marks. Any ideas?



Not 10 yards from that, I found this perfect horseshoe at about 9 inches deep, laying perfectly flat in thick, packed clay. Given the proximity I'm hopeful that it could be a cavalry shoe or at least of that period. Can anyone help identify it? It is really narrow and smaller in comparison to other shoes I've dug up.



I can't wait to come back in the future and see what else we can find.
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