Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
My friend Joey and I hooked up on his day off and made a long road trip to check out some new sites. We got lucky by quickly landing permission at a location Joey had researched, and fortunately those pesky hunters weren't around. It was a gorgeous site well back from and above the river, and it offered quite a stunning view. As soon as we walked into the field we hit a major iron patch and slowly started pulling out colonial artifacts, some which helped to verify the c1680 occupancy of this site. Joey hit paydirt first with a nice cut pistareen, and a little later in the hunt I dug what I thought was a KG copper. But it turned out to be a 1675 Charles II copper farthing, and was in unbelievably good condition for a field-dug coin. Today I dry cleaned it with a toothbrush and toothpick, and then used a little Blue Ribbon coin cleaner topped off with a coating of Renaissance wax. I was pretty happy with the results. One of my first targets was this cool looking large domed button with some interesting designs. I thought it was probably early-to-mid 1800s, but when I was cleaning it I noticed a drilled eye shank which dates it to the late 1700s. I also dug a 1600s nipple button and a couple of fragile pewter buttons. Near the end of the hunt I chased a deep iron signal that led me to a nice colonial hoe that's cleaning up nicely in the electrolysis tank. The hoe was near the bottom of a small burn pit with a lot of charcoal and brick, but I only saw one piece of pottery. Joey and I decided to wait and expand on that spot at a later date. We wrapped up our visit by showing the elderly owner our finds, and we also discussed the history of the property with her. We were invited back anytime, and have plenty of areas for expanding our searches (in addition to looking for Joey's cut silver coin that was apparently dropped in the field somewhere). Had a great time Joey, and thanks again for the invite.
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The closest that I can get to digging is removing the 2" of the white stuff from my driveway last night. Oh well, I guess I can admire finds from TNet members to get me through the winter blues. That Charles the II of yours can suppress my withdrawal symptoms all the way to mid-January. Keep up the awesome finds.
