Four Years Detecting and Still No Banners

Eastender

Sr. Member
Mar 30, 2020
419
2,768
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
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.
 

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malenkai

Full Member
May 4, 2016
182
550
Chester County, PA
Detector(s) used
E-Trac
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I found a chain cent, of which it is estimated there are less than 1000 left in existence (admittedly I didn't work on it), no banner.

Found a 4 reale (pretty rare), counterstamped in England (even rarer still), no banner. Need to find an 8 reale, cuz they are bigger, even tho far more common. Size matters. 8 reales banner, 4 reales don't.

Find a gold coin, and you are in, even tho they are much more common than either of these finds. (And forget my avatar coin, never ever seen another one posted anywhere, but I found it before becoming a member here. Since it is just a small silver coin, probably would not have made it anyway).

Don't worry about the banner. There is more to it than how rare or cool the finds are. People who don't post much have no chance. Just be self-content and keep swinging.

Good luck!
 

Blak bart

Gold Member
Jun 6, 2016
18,548
97,693
FL keys
🥇 Banner finds
5
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Mine lab primary fisher secondary
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I do remember the Carnelian intaglio....it was banner and I think I voted on it. Let's hope your next find is a banner !! Thank you for your posts and beautiful finds !!
 

Blak bart

Gold Member
Jun 6, 2016
18,548
97,693
FL keys
🥇 Banner finds
5
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Mine lab primary fisher secondary
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Gosh....after looking at your threads and posts, you definitely have found many banner worthy finds !! And I love the art thread you made !! Wishing you luck in the future.
 

Tesorodeoro

Bronze Member
Jan 21, 2018
1,216
1,903
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I don’t dig for what others think. Be careful to avoid putting too much emphasis on recognition by others.

Thanks for the bit of background information. All of the folks I have met that work in archaeology have a secret desire to metal detect as a hobby, but they know it’s frowned upon in their professional circle. They make it clear that anything they collect is purchased from legitimate sources ;) I feel so sorry for them.
 

pepperj

Gold Member
Feb 3, 2009
37,007
136,893
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Deus, Deus 2, Minelab 3030, E-Trac,
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
I often wonder about the banner and what makes it up.

Some have flown up there so quickly that one wonders.

Then there are others that are worthy, and never get up there.

Is it the story, heart pumping, hyping the make and model.
Certainly not the level of posts as some come around to post only when it's a quality find, and it seems to fly up there.
Then they disappear again, never giving a nod to anyone else's find.
This just my take on this, and not really into it at all.
Sure what was a certainty for the banner years ago isn't today.

I've stated this before, lots of worthy finds are recovered but never posted up.
To these folks it just doesn't matter really.
Then to many it's the dream achievement of this passion to have a banner.
The true banner is the actual hunt, forgetting life, and digging a signal.
OH Ya! :headbang:
 

3cylbill

Hero Member
Jul 2, 2015
847
1,419
s.tier NY
Detector(s) used
TESORO, MINELAB, WHITES , GARRETT
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
A few years ago TN denied a beautiful French gold coin found in Nj and will probably ever be found in the US again , whoever decides what goes up on the banner is bias
 

Jorgeke

Bronze Member
Oct 13, 2021
1,025
3,457
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.
Eastender,

I do not know what is a banner, but any way I think you do not needed .

Your narrative transport me at the best of a detectorist can enjoy.

Where are you located?

Congratulation for that beauty coin, I’m not familiar with that coin, but is nice.

Keep detecting, keep posting, keep in touch.

👍🏽🧔🏾‍♂️
 

JVA5th

Silver Member
Mar 1, 2014
4,785
26,591
Merced, CA
Detector(s) used
Deus 2, Deus XP, AT Pro, Whites TRX pinpointer, Sampson Ground Shark shovel
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I've been metal detecting for like 15 years and nothing banner worthy so don't feel bad lol. I know it isn't impossible and I enjoy the hobby but I also have a personal goal to get at least one banner. Probably won't ever happen as my luck has always been absolute garbage with everything but oh well I enjoy the hobby.
 

releventchair

Gold Member
May 9, 2012
22,225
69,634
Primary Interest:
Other
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.
Ahh, but you have held many fistfulls of banners!

Whenever you hold a relic and it clicks as part of a past long gone you're in the game.
And when you know it's unique so much there's no other , it's banner.

Judging a recovery (or find left where found) by a website with an international following and not all are forced to vote on? Is certainly not fair to such finds.

Fickle folks speeding through catch a glimpse of something that strikes a chord and they can like it. Enough such votes it gains more votes.
Pretty shiny? Pretty rare? Unusual? Well written up?
That means nothing to the relic in your hand , does it? Or to your appreciation of it and it's history.

My best personal banner (and I don't care to choose a best or most valuable in my meager pile , or things left where they were) might be a very old stone chisel.
Years before I'd sat on a large rock/boulder in the woods for a breather while hunting/scouting deer. Soon I saw a pattern to the other boulders (which were out of place in that environment already).
Closer observation found divots in them from where moved with tongs. (?)
Near when I got back on the prowl was an old pine stump fence leading to more boulders making up a barn foundation layout. Stonework showing some effort at one time in cutting ect..

The whys of homesteading way back found lots of places failing. Soil having a lot to do with it.
In time more could be understood of an old timers homesteads layout.
And he must have been very industrious.
But in the sighing breezed woods was no sign of recent human life for a very long time.

I returned years later with a detector. And wouldn't you know , found someone had been ahead of me about a week!
And left plenty of evidence. Unfortunately instead of filling plugs/holes ect..
On the boulders of the barn foundation were bits of cow chain and misc. rusted stuff. It bugged me more the evidence than having had someone ahead of me. Nevermind the remote site. But the old timer's life there didn't deserve such of what he wouldn't have done.

I worked what should have been the path from barn to other dwelling , cabin maybe. And there was an old pointed stone chisel.
Which brought to mind that first boulder and divot.
Maybe I should have left it there. But part of that long ago homesteaders life there reflected in a tool he used is not still exposed to soil conditions.
And whoever he was is still remembered in a tangible way.
A similar history to many homesteaders around here that faded into the quiet breeze. But still as unique as his tools.
 

Last edited:
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OP
Eastender

Eastender

Sr. Member
Mar 30, 2020
419
2,768
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks to everyone who has read and responded to my post. It's something to think about and we enjoy talking about different aspects of our hobby. I left Facebook over two years ago so this forum is my social media. And I certainly don't need a banner to feel validated. The banner might be like a bright shiny object flapping in the wind, but it is supported by a pole set in a cairn of finds.

It's true that professional archaeologists usually look down on detectorists and they discourage collecting. I left the profession decades ago. Although rewarding I do have some regrets about my archaeological work in Southern CA. Who knows what dangerous contaminants I was exposed to on these military bases? I know of depleted uranium shells for one. I wasn't nitpicking in a trench. I spent long days walking transects looking for surface finds. Artifacts thousands of years old lay eroded on the desert floor and along the former shores of dry lake beds. The same high desert which seared me in summer temps over 100 degrees were also at times covered in snow.

The highlights, at age 20, was acting as Camp Director for a Petroglyph Expedition in the Mojave and later being named to a crack unit of 6 who completed a surface survey of the Goldstone tracking facility run by NASA and JPL. The tracking satellite dish arrays were incredible to watch but it now makes me nervous to think about the microwave radiation I was exposed to. I watched the second space shuttle land at Fort Edwards AFB. I'm still around with fingers crossed! A couple of years after that while working with UNESCO in Northern Kenya I was fortunate to examine in situ artifacts along the eastern shore of Lake Turkana not far from where Louis Leaky worked. I was a dual major in Cultural & Natural Resources Management but squandered my education by becoming a builder. I'm blue collar to the bone.

One day when I showing someone some local artifacts someone unknown to me walked up and said: "grave robber!" I quickly and calmly replied: "No sir, I am not a lawyer." And probably the most annoying comment is when someone asks: "What is that worth?" To which I usually reply: "You have no idea."

I have butted heads with local Historians who only seem interested in prominent characters of wealth and high culture. I prefer to champion the farmer scratching out life from the earth supplemented by the sea on the New England Coast. There is an arrogant Phd-ism to them. We detectorists have spent so much time in the field ground truthing. I not only read the same books they do, I touch history.
 

Riverbum

Sr. Member
Jul 13, 2011
297
577
Colorado
Detector(s) used
Whites
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I've been on this site for about ten years and also have never POSTED my finds. Very proud of them but don't need to advertise it, brag, etc., due to reasons that MANY of us here don't post,
 

OP
OP
Eastender

Eastender

Sr. Member
Mar 30, 2020
419
2,768
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I enjoy it when I post something and people give me insight as to what it is. Also to compare the conditions of finds between different areas and the frequencies of certain finds. I like to read people's experiences and reactions to different detectors. I've also contributed two mercantile button finds, c. 1820 - 30's from Dry Goods Stores on Pearl St. in NYC, to an author writing a definitive book on the subject. One of them was a previously unknown example. Probably they were firms outfitting whaling ships. I gave them away and the author rewarded me with a mint, undug, mid-1700's shoe buckle made in NH.

I'm not an equipment junkie I only own a Nox 800, but I want to buy the Minelab Manticore. But who knows when that will eventually be in stock? So I've been reading about the Deus II.
 

pa-dirt_nc-sand

Silver Member
Apr 18, 2016
4,231
14,615
South Western PA
🥇 Banner finds
2
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
ACE 250 with DD coil
Equinox 600
Primary Interest:
Metal Detecting
I enjoyed reading your post. Your hunting environ is similar to mine. You have accumulated an impressive number of top pocket finds, probably at least one or 2 should have made it to banner.

Please keep on keeping on. Finding that random Barber Dime or really nice big tombac button after 50 straight shotgun shell head stamps, alarmingly nice sounding square nails and odd bits of lead provide that burst of dopamine that make the 4 hour hike worth every minute. It’s the allure of the unknown. What is over the crest, across the stream, just past the row of odd outcropping of brush.

I have been lucky enough to have a couple of my finds voted to banner. But recently with the “new” Tnet on my iPhone, I have not been able to see the banner listing anymore. I still enjoy participating with my hunts and finds and reading about what everyone is finding, techniques and new products. I don’t miss seeing the banners, but appreciate at a very deep level your contributions to the forum. Thx man!
 

Treasure_Hunter

Administrator
Staff member
Jul 27, 2006
48,301
54,449
Florida
Detector(s) used
Minelab_Equinox_ 800 Minelab_CTX-3030 Minelab_Excal_1000 Minelab_Sovereign_GT Minelab_Safari Minelab_ETrac Whites_Beach_Hunter_ID Fisher_1235_X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I enjoyed reading your post. Your hunting environ is similar to mine. You have accumulated an impressive number of top pocket finds, probably at least one or 2 should have made it to banner.

Please keep on keeping on. Finding that random Barber Dime or really nice big tombac button after 50 straight shotgun shell head stamps, alarmingly nice sounding square nails and odd bits of lead provide that burst of dopamine that make the 4 hour hike worth every minute. It’s the allure of the unknown. What is over the crest, across the stream, just past the row of odd outcropping of brush.

I have been lucky enough to have a couple of my finds voted to banner. But recently with the “new” Tnet on my iPhone, I have not been able to see the banner listing anymore. I still enjoy participating with my hunts and finds and reading about what everyone is finding, techniques and new products. I don’t miss seeing the banners, but appreciate at a very deep level your contributions to the forum. Thx man!
Go to Forum home page, about a 1/4 way down page is banner finds.
 

Gare

Gold Member
Dec 30, 2012
7,363
13,868
Canton Ohio Area
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
2
Detector(s) used
Presently using Deus 2's & have Minelabs, Nokta's Tesoro's DEus's Have them all . Have WAY to many need to get rid of some
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Banners are in the eyes of the finder :) and of course the voters here :)
 

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