Plantation

[krdigger]

I have an opportunity to search a 1700's plantaion. Has anyone searched a plantation? Cache is said to be hidden on property. Any ideas on where to look? If hidden in mason jar will the metal lid override the signal of the silver/gold? Thanks.

 

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[jeff of pa]

If the Jar is Buried Lid up, the Lid will Give the Signal.

No Fear. Mason jar Lids give Great Signal.

If the jars are Buried upside down, the Coins will give the signal.

 

[diggummup]

Need a little more information on the layout of the place.Is the house still standing? Is there a cellar of any type?Do you know when(approx.) the cache was supposed to have been buried? During the Civil war or something else? Southern plantation I take it? Outbuildings? Past and present? Roads back then,same ones used now? Any rock walls(fences)?Is there a water source near by? Where were the slaves' quarters?Is the barn original?These are all questions you have to ask yourself. I wouldn't discriminate when detecting this type of an area.Dig all signals.Yes,a mason jar gives off a great signal.Can you hunt this place as many times as you want or is this a one time deal?If it were me and I buried a cache it would not be buried close to the house.It would be buried on my escape route away from the house.That is if I was hiding it during the civil war for fear of Yankees burning and pillaging and raping and murdering.Dam Yankees!LOL BTW-welcome ,I see your a newbie.This forum is the best,you'll learn a lot here. Good luck

 

[diggemall]

I seriously doubt that coins in a canning jar would be detectable right side up or upside down (glass is a fantastic electrical insulator) The zinc lidded mason jar was invented in 1858. The glass jar with glass lid and wire clamp closure was invented in 1882. Both post-CW. There's another report in this forum on the undetectability of deep-buried containers of coins. How deep you can detect a jarful of coins would be dependent on how deep you can detect the lid or closure, not the mass of coins.

More likely on a CW plantation, family silver and the like might have been placed in a gunny sack or table cloth etc., and buried with the intent of retrieving it shortly thereafter. This might be detectable depending on how deep it was buried because the fabric wouldn;t insulate the signal.

Good Luck

Diggem'

 

[diggummup]

Okay,whatever dude.

 

[jeff of pa]

OK, to Prove a point.

I just taped a Quarter to the BACK of a Mirror.

Took my Sunray Probe, In Discriminate, Connected to my Sovereign.

& was able to detect the Quarter Through the Mirror.

Then I filled a Milk Bottle with Pennies & was able to Detect through the Bottom, with a VERY Loud Signal.

Since it will Detect through the reflection of a "Glass" Mirror;

and the Bottom of a Milk Bottle,

in my opinion,
Proof Positive, a Detector will Detect through a Mason Jar.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

OK, to Prove a point.

I just taped a Quarter to the BACK of a Mirror.

Took my Sunray Probe, In Discriminate, Connected to my Sovereign.

& was able to detect the Quarter Through the Mirror.

Since it will Detect through the reflection of a "Glass" Mirror;
in my opinion,
Proof Positive, a Detector will Detect through a Mason Jar.

Is there any non-metal that it wll not detect through?

 

[jeff of pa]

No.

A detector Will detect through Water, Rock, Glass, Wood, Etc.

 

[krdigger]

Thanks for the replies Diggumup and Diggemall. I appreciate the information. The cache is more than likely post cw. The cache was buried more because of a civil dispute. Not the war itself.Due to the motivation of the individual I think it was more than likely close to the residence.Due to the age of the residence itself I am just as interested in individual coins and relics as I am the main cache. I wonder if it would be plausible that one would chose a body of water to hid a cache. This would in fact present a new challenge. I wish you two the best of luck in your endeavors. God Bless. KRDIGGER.

 

[krdigger]

Jeff of P A. Thanks for the information. I am very excited to have this opportunity. I will make the best of it. I believe it will be very time consuming but very much worth it. Best of luck to you on your searches.

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Is there a well on the property? Is the home still standing? Sometimes a safe was made in a fireplace hearth, a stone foundation or spring house. Look for loose rocks or one that doesn't seem to be a normal one for that spot. Is there a family cemetery on the property?

 

[bakergeol]

Diggemall is correct. Actually nice to know some people are learning something from previous TN threads.

The issue is not detecting thru glass but detecting a mass of coins only. It is difficult detecting a mass of coins compared to an equal mass solid metal object.

There has been several coin hoard tests made by Gary(UK) and Carl(Geotech). The challenge was if you bury a coin hoard(high conductor) at 24" without a metal lid(no iron) is there a detector that could detect them. The answer is no. No detector used and the detectors tried ran the gauntlet from 2 box, VLF, or PI made can detect a coin hoard(high conductor)only at 24". So much for cache detectors. So if you have silver coins in a mason jar wire glass lid below 2'- too bad. It will never be detected. A lot of coin hoards are found in the UK but they are almost never found intact. Usually a plow has broken up the cache and scattered the coins and these coins are found by detectorists.

http://thunting.com/geotech/forums/showthread.php?t=11831

Now the issue which was not tried was a test for low conductors. Basically small gold coins in a non-iron container. I feel that a good Pulse Induction unit could pass this test as they can have greater depth on low conductors(gold). My PI the GS5 is "hot" on low conductors and it can detect a handfull(12)of nickels at 20 inches with the stock coil. With a large coil ellip 18" or 24" certainly much deeper.

So it is not as easy as people think detecting a cache if you don't have a large mass iron container or steel lid. Coins buried in stoneware, pottery or glass only would be very difficult to detect if not buried shallow.

By the way if you need a partner send me a personal message. The only machine that will detect a gold coin or a mass of gold coins deeper than my GS5/mag combo is the GP3500( but my GS5 has better iron ID.)

Have PI- will travel
George

 

[diggummup]

I guess I stand corrected then.Sorry digemall.There are a few "ifs" in there though.And krdigger believes it to be a post civil war cache.So maybe a mason jar with a zinc lid isn't out of the question as far as the cache goes.Actually,I read the post you are talking about.I don't own a detector that will go down 2 feet anyway,'cept maybe on a beer can on the beach,so what do I know.Keep us updated krdigger.

 

[jeff of pa]

Well, I'm not going to dig a hole 2 feet deep, unless I know there is already something down there I never saw before. So that Test for me is out of the Question.

I do agree Mass is Important at that Depth & the Glass would Prevent
the Halo Effect. However I believe a Tightly Packed Jar of Coins, upside down, would
show the same Mass as a Jar lid Right side up. just without the Halo
effect, leaching into the ground.

However, I still Believe an Upside Down Jar of Coins, Because the Lid would still be Leaching, would cause a Signal, on a High end detector,
If the jar was buried for 50 to a Hundred Years.
Just not as Good a Signal.

I don't want to, And Won't argue Fruther on this.
It's My Final Post in this Thread on it, BUT I do
Stick by this Belief, till someone can prove me wrong.
By Burring a Cache wait 50 years and let me try and get a signal :P

But the thing is, I Don't believe anyone would Bury a Mason Jar of Coins Upside Down. It would be too hard to grip to pull it back up, and It just wouldn't happen, because the human mind, would make you bury it right side up.

 

[diggemall]

Thanks guys.

I find this discussion EXTREMELY interesting because

a) I'm an electrical engineer (Note - electrical, NOT electronics - big diff - all that IC stuff confuses the bejeesus out of me)

b) I really don't understand what makes MD's tick

c) I can't figure out why a mass of steel is more detectable than a mass of gold or silver at the same depth. Gold and silver are significantly more conductive than steel (that's why you won't often find steel contacts in low-resistance relay contacts, etc., but do find silver or gold contacts depending on the intended application)

d) MOST important - I know the locations AND can detect at will at two homes that were used by profitable moonshiners during prohibition. I suspect that due to the really rural location of both of these sites (inaccessibility of banks), the timing relative to the prohibition of US citizens owning gold coinage, etc. that there is a fairly high likelihood of cached hard (coin) currency. The 2000.00 question is how to increase my odds of actually finding it if it is there !

Diggem'

 

[Gypsy Heart]

I would think that up until the 1910's, most people would bury their money in a stone ware crock or jug. I know these can be detected at a depth of two feet . I had a ggrandfather from Michigan who during the depression buried his money in stoneware jars because they wouldnt rot like wood or break or rust.
My other grandmother from the Ozarks, said they as well as their kin always kept their money in a stoneware canning jar.

 

[diggemall]

Gypsy

I suspect that that is true right through the thirties.

Until people had vehicles, a horse-drawn trip to town might be an all day affair - not very convenient to get to banks

Thanks to the Depression, many people didn't trust the banks even well after it was over.

For a moonshiner that made a weekly or bi-weekly run to Chicago to sell his goods, I imagine they might have feared that a fattening bank account might have drawn attention.

So you've got people stashing their money then along comes FDR in what 1934? and declares that gold coinage is illegal to own. Don't want to get busted having it but don't trust the banks either......What to do? Many of these old timers died before Nixon removed the taboo in the late sixties.

Heck, I still know people that are somehow comforted by squirreling money away in strange places.

Diggem'

 

[krdigger]

I had the opportunity to visit this site for a while last week. Not a lot of luck so far.Found a trigger, part of a slave shackle(disturbing), and a few other farm relics. I firmly believe something is there. It will just take patience.

 

[ericwt]

Slave shackles are extremely valuable. Even parts of them. Do not throw them away.

If you don't want it send it to me.

Disturbing as it is I hope you find more of them.

ericwt

 

[krdigger]

Thanks for the info Eric. I don't think I could sell it in good conscience though. May give to a museum anonymously. I am much more interested in the cache. Iron trash is a huge pain in the backside. Dug several plough blades. OH well if it were easy it wouldn't be there still I guess.