Mirage
Silver Member
Modern Miner(Doug) and I had discussed the possibility of getting together for a hunt last summer but It wasn’t until last week when he invited me down. I thought through some of the details but the final decision was made when he emailed me with the message - “get your butt down here and help me dig up this stuff!”
So Friday morning we had just gotten 4 fresh inches of snow. :P
Fortunately they were able to keep up with it and the roads were fine. It was such a good feeling driving south and the more I kept driving the less snow I saw.
Once out of Ohio the snow was gone and I ended up here the next day: 
This was a home that was originally settled in 1799 on 625 acres near Raleigh, North Carolina. The real home wasn't built until 1820. The home had slaves, a tenant house, smoke house, and a carriage house. Also, the property had a civil war road that went through it. An exceptional site.
Doug gave me a tour of some of the properties he had been hunting and some of the finds he had found at the sites before we hit the plantation house. It wasn’t too long into the hunt when I hit a pocket spill of a couple wheats and a silver rosie. We hunted for a while and didn’t get too much more until I worked an area that Doug said was the “hot spot”. This is where he had found all the buttons and silver earlier in the week. Well not more than a foot or two from the hole where he pulled out his first V nickel I got this one:
It was a deep and next to some iron so I can see why the mighty Tesoro missed it.
Anyway, we ate some lunch and hunted around the house and then started to work our way back to the tenant’s house foundation. That’s when Doug went into the horse riding area. Horses are kind of a novelty for us Yankee city folk so I had to get a picture.
I asked Doug where the civil war road went though and he indicated right where he was hunting. Good enough for me I thought. So I join him and get a penny type signal. I was expecting a memorial or something cause it was so shallow. I was shocked to see this ½ Reale (Spanish silver):
Here is what the coin should look like. Not sure if it’s the right variety but close:
I knew very quickly what it was cause of the hole and some readable letters. I quickly went over to show Doug and we both got pumped. It’s definitely my oldest coin to date and something I know is not an easy coin to find.
We hunted some more and Doug scored some IH’s and the Buffalo Nickel. After the hunt I got to meet his family and inlaws. He is blessed with a good wife, kids and even inlaws.
We had a lot of treasure talk and he showed me his impressive collection of finds – especially for the short time he has been detecting. He really has a lot of nice unique relics. I was even surprised to see a few Williams Cleaner bullets in there.
Sorry for the late write up but I did have to drive 600 miles back and go to work the next day.
Doug, Once again thank you for the great hospitality. You will have to come up here when it’s tick season. We don’t have many of those up here.
Some more pics of the site and finds:
Lead stuff -
Back of the V nickel is nicer than the front:
Shotgun shells and such:
This was cool. In the middle of the horse riding area was a raised up mini, old graveyard.
Only one grave had a tombstone:
Here is all the stuff except the eight wheat pennies which I forgot to take pictures of. There were two older wheats. One a nice 1918 and the other I think a 1920.
Bob
So Friday morning we had just gotten 4 fresh inches of snow. :P
Fortunately they were able to keep up with it and the roads were fine. It was such a good feeling driving south and the more I kept driving the less snow I saw.
Once out of Ohio the snow was gone and I ended up here the next day:
This was a home that was originally settled in 1799 on 625 acres near Raleigh, North Carolina. The real home wasn't built until 1820. The home had slaves, a tenant house, smoke house, and a carriage house. Also, the property had a civil war road that went through it. An exceptional site.
Doug gave me a tour of some of the properties he had been hunting and some of the finds he had found at the sites before we hit the plantation house. It wasn’t too long into the hunt when I hit a pocket spill of a couple wheats and a silver rosie. We hunted for a while and didn’t get too much more until I worked an area that Doug said was the “hot spot”. This is where he had found all the buttons and silver earlier in the week. Well not more than a foot or two from the hole where he pulled out his first V nickel I got this one:
It was a deep and next to some iron so I can see why the mighty Tesoro missed it.
Anyway, we ate some lunch and hunted around the house and then started to work our way back to the tenant’s house foundation. That’s when Doug went into the horse riding area. Horses are kind of a novelty for us Yankee city folk so I had to get a picture.
I asked Doug where the civil war road went though and he indicated right where he was hunting. Good enough for me I thought. So I join him and get a penny type signal. I was expecting a memorial or something cause it was so shallow. I was shocked to see this ½ Reale (Spanish silver):
Here is what the coin should look like. Not sure if it’s the right variety but close:
I knew very quickly what it was cause of the hole and some readable letters. I quickly went over to show Doug and we both got pumped. It’s definitely my oldest coin to date and something I know is not an easy coin to find.
We hunted some more and Doug scored some IH’s and the Buffalo Nickel. After the hunt I got to meet his family and inlaws. He is blessed with a good wife, kids and even inlaws.
We had a lot of treasure talk and he showed me his impressive collection of finds – especially for the short time he has been detecting. He really has a lot of nice unique relics. I was even surprised to see a few Williams Cleaner bullets in there.
Sorry for the late write up but I did have to drive 600 miles back and go to work the next day.
Doug, Once again thank you for the great hospitality. You will have to come up here when it’s tick season. We don’t have many of those up here.
Some more pics of the site and finds:
Lead stuff -
Back of the V nickel is nicer than the front:
Shotgun shells and such:
This was cool. In the middle of the horse riding area was a raised up mini, old graveyard.
Only one grave had a tombstone:
Here is all the stuff except the eight wheat pennies which I forgot to take pictures of. There were two older wheats. One a nice 1918 and the other I think a 1920.
Bob
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I will print out a picture of it an put it on my file cabinet next to the picture of my other oldest coin (the 1929 LC).
.......i'd appreciate a good word towards us mder's in the northeast.........take care all....HH..............mark43
