It pays to go slow as proven by a 24 button day + colonial copper & silver coins

Bill D. (VA) · Apr 9, 2015

After this morning's rain I was able to make it back out to my new site for the 3rd time. I wasn't expecting much as I had already hit the small iron patch area pretty well, or so I thought. I started out randomly scanning around the perimeter of the hotspot trying to dig a stray find but wasn't having much luck. At that point I decided to venture back into the area that had given up so many buttons and coins during the 2 previous trips, and immediately got an obvious hit that quickly put a button in my pouch. I got to thinking that during the first 2 hunts I had been a little anxious, and was probably swinging a bit too fast, especially considering that a lot of the targets were deep. So I decided to begin methodically hunting at 90 degrees to my previous passes, and slowed WAY DOWN. I couldn't believe all the signals I had missed, and the buttons and other relics started popping out left and right. About halfway into the hunt I thought I had unearthed another of those large buttons that usually read in the 60s, but got caught off guard when I saw another half reale laying there in the dirt. It was another 1772 just like I recovered on the last hunt. What are the odds of that? A bit later I thought I had a big green button, but got fooled again as it ended up being another Va halfpenny. I also dug a cool looking piece to a colonial watch winder. And near the end of the day I got fooled for the 3rd time when I was absolutely sure I was holding a tarnished piece of cut silver in my hand. But when I brushed the dirt away I quickly saw that one end had a long point protruding off to the side, and it was unfortunately just a broken button. I finished the day by zig-zagging around the entire perimeter of the site a bit more, but could only come up with one more button making my final count for the 4 hour hunt a whopping 24. Overall this site has produced 50-60 buttons and 5 colonial coins (see last 3 pics for site totals), but I'm even more proud of the research effort that led me to this totally undocumented and unhunted site. It's also interesting to note that the dates for all 5 coins dug at this site fall into an extremely narrow range (1772-1775) which is highly unusual.