Four Years Detecting and Still No Banners

[ARC]

I know i would have said banner for any chain cent for one... never saw the threads i guess.

It happens sometimes when thread is posted during a slower time or just "slips through the cracks"... so to speak.

 

[Chilli]

I'm not complaining but I do use it as motivation. I enjoy seeing what other detectorists are unearthing. I can go days without a find so looking over Today's Finds makes me want to get back out there. I love this hobby and spend most of my free time pursuing it. I'm a deep woods cruiser spending around 6 hours per session walking in rolling forests. Sometimes my sites are an hour's walk from the car. As a former Boy Scout I carry a backpack with food, water, fire, first aid kit, Garmin Montana GPS, rain poncho, storage bags, and a Leatherman multi-tool. I don't carry a shovel. I wear a White's serrated trowel and Minelab Pro-find 35 in holsters on a nylon belt. I keep moving and switch hands detecting. Rarely do I get bogged down in trashy areas. Just some patches of rose nails but the colonials recycled those too. For me junk is old paper shotgun shell brass bases. There is no cell phone signal in my area. I could easily spend a night in the woods if I have to. But I'm an old man and don't want to hunker around a fire to ride the night out!

I will say that in my youth I was a professional archaeologist in the Mojave Desert of Southern Cal and have a graduate level background. In the early 1980's I was part of the team discovering and preserving sites in the vast area of Ft. Irwin which was reopened to counter the Soviet armored infantry doctrine after the invasion of Afghanistan. In the late 1970's I specialized in mapping and recording ancient Native American Petroglyphs of Black Canyon. So no banners here but I did help locate sites now protected on the National Historic Preservation Register. Pre bow and arrow technologies. I started out in my teens hunting arrowheads in the cornfields of WNY State. Shout out to the great Seneca Nation! I use archival maps and read historical texts (local, regional and national). I do my homework. But I frequently can and do learn things from peoples of all backgrounds. TN Members have taught me many things. I spend a lot of time teaching local history.

I feel as though I have made a series of remarkable finds and have contributed to the understanding of early European settlement in my area. I enjoy seeing farm implements and horse shoes. It's interesting to see the size of horse and oxen shoes increase for the larger animals between the 1700 and 1800's. Buttons and shoe buckles are prized by me as they were personal possessions. In the past couple of years I have found KG I, II, and III halfpence. A beautiful GW Inaugural. Rosa Americana and Machin's Mills. Draped Bust, Matrons, trimes, a 1770 Spanish Real. Loads of musket balls and ballistics. A red carnelian intaglio. Mid-1700's Chinese Cash coins. A perfect mid-1700's knee buckle. I have a collection of early coins worn so smooth from use. They demonstrate the scarcity of small change prior to the 1830's. Barter and ledger systems most likely ruled. My oldest coins are 1723 and 1724. Recently I found an intact silver horse bridle rosette. A real gem. Still hoping to break into the 1600's. Honestly my post-1850 coins do not excite me as much. Seeing 17-- makes my heart pound. Fortunately the soils are well-drained so the finds are remarkably preserved.

But still no banner. These finds are apparently more like stitches in the fabric of a banner. In total they tell the story of early American life. I can go days without finding anything while fending off ticks and biting insects. In the winter, kicking aside up to a couple of inches of snow to sink the trowel. It doesn't matter. Because I am out in nature, exercising. The memories, the possibility, of pulling out an old copper from around 4" deep wondering whose portrait is on it. My wish list: a Fugio and any of the MA colonial silver. Some day you will see me here with a banner or at least I will go down swinging. When I found the GW (photo attached) with my White's Spectra 3Vi I had no idea what it was! TN Members set me straight when I posted it. I guess not knowing what it was disqualified me from a banner! Ironically I set a quarter next to it for size when I pulled it from the ground.

My old man detector advice. No matter how technologically advanced or costly your machine is and how well you know how to operate it; you can't find stuff that isn't there. Iron is the bane for me but the number is unstable and the tone diffuse. I know this well after digging up hundreds upon hundreds of nails of all sizes just to be certain. I trust the factory settings on my Nox 800 and I'm confident I will find most of what is worth finding.

Phew. No probs. I started gold detecting in the 1990s! So many friends found over 10 oz bits. I found thous of bits. Best 9oz.
Some friends lumps into the hundreds of oz. Best of them a 200oz thumper! Its not the size, its not the finds. Its the journey. Some I know gound several over 20oz. But others I know found much much more than them with nothing over a few ounces! It doesn't matter.
If I never find a Banner find, I dont care. But dont get me wrong. I will always be over the moon happy for anyone that does. And I'll be jumping up and down if I ever do too.
This is the best. Live a good honest life, love your friends, love your family.
Anything else is the bonus!

 

[ARC]

Phew. No probs. I started gold detecting in the 1990s! So many friends found over 10 oz bits. I found thous of bits. Best 9oz.
Some friends lumps into the hundreds of oz. Best of them a 200oz thumper! Its not the size, its not the finds. Its the journey. Some I know gound several over 20oz. But others I know found much much more than them with nothing over a few ounces! It doesn't matter.
If I never find a Banner find, I dont care. But dont get me wrong. I will always be over the moon happy for anyone that does. And I'll be jumping up and down if I ever do too.
This is the best. Live a good honest life, love your friends, love your family.
Anything else is the bonus!

hear! hear!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Just an FYI, winning banner depends on multiple factors, rarity of find is one factor, the votes it receives, the condition, the quality of the pictures of the find, the story posted with the find, , and what finds are currently visible on the banner.

 

[USMC Reaper]

Eastender, I always read your posts with great interest.

Semper Fi

 

[eddie13]

I find their is much less to find in the deep woods but so much more enjoyable not being inundated with signals of trash..

The amount of modern trash in some areas makes me “WOW!”..

 

[detectorcowboy]

Could someone tell me what a banner is?

 

[Tesorodeoro]

Could someone tell me what a banner is?

It’s a combination of a find that makes the folks here go WOW and a find that is presented in particular way that draws new visitors to this site and generates views and clicks. It shows up at the top of the screen as a featured picture “story” or Banner find. Highly coveted by many folks. I suppose it may be the modern equivalent to getting your find In a treasure rag. Views, clicks, and likes are a priority for some for different reasons.

 

[ARC]

Could someone tell me what a banner is?

Your are either trying to be funny or ? ? ?

You cant be serious after being a member of this site since 09 and not know.

Not being rude... just trying to get a grip.

 

[TheGreenBoy]

I found no banner stuff after 20+ years of detecting but the guy at local dump knows my name.
Though i had found a fake gold coin once.....