paleomaxx
Hero Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2016
- Messages
- 841
- Reaction score
- 6,888
- Golden Thread
- 6
- Location
- Upstate, NY
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 6
- Detector(s) used
- Deus XP
- Primary Interest:
- All Treasure Hunting
Quite the unexpected hunt. I was hiking to a site I had spotted on the maps which involved negotiating about 2 miles of rocky woods. About halfway I stumbled on a small section of rockwall and a huge squarish pile of rocks. There was nothing on the maps, but it never hurts to check them out. I dropped my pack and did a circle around the pile with the detector and didn't pick up any signals so I was walking back to the backpack and to my surprise there's a clear penny signal right next to it:
I didn't look like much out of the ground, but I knew it was a colonial copper. Back at home I decided to keep the patina and some careful removal of dirt revealed a clear King George III bust and a date of 1787; a Machin's Mills! Amazingly there was even enough detail in the right spots to get a specific die variety nailed down. I'm very confident it's a Vlack 18-87C based on the dot after "Georgius" and the shape of the ribbon. Here's what it would have looked like if the ground hadn't gotten to it:
It's listed as an R-4 so 200 or less specimens!
After finding a colonial copper I knew there had to be more so I started walking in expanding loops around the rock square. There were large rock piles everywhere and definitely iron signals, but it wasn't until I was 50 feet away up a little hill that I spotted the cellar hole. It's absolutely tiny (10'x10') but still deep since all four walls are intact. Right at the lip I get another penny signal that's under the leaves. Kicking them over I spot the tiny disc and even under the encrusted dirt I can see what it is:
A Trime! The obverse was pretty worn, but it looks to be an 1852. The reverse is great though and I'm happy with any silver at a cellar hole, worn or otherwise. That was it for coins, but there were a number of relics going down a slope leading away from the foundation.
Nice little pocket knife along with the usual pewter spoon fragments and the ferrule from a scythe handle. I did find a handful of buttons including a really nice designed one:
Oddly there were only targets going in one direction away from the foundation. The other 3/4 of the area was empty besides old iron can fragments. My theory is the homesite was in the process of being cleared/built when it was abandoned either because they passed away or gave up due to the sheer number of rocks in the ground. Given how many massive piles of rocks there are scattered about I favor the latter.
I did eventually finish the hike to the cellar hole I had planned on exploring, but my time was limited so I did just a 30min survey. It's another good one though; I picked up 3 coins in that time:
Pretty toasty but an 1864 2-cent, an 1899 V Nickel and a 1900 IHP. Looks like I have some more work to do!
I didn't look like much out of the ground, but I knew it was a colonial copper. Back at home I decided to keep the patina and some careful removal of dirt revealed a clear King George III bust and a date of 1787; a Machin's Mills! Amazingly there was even enough detail in the right spots to get a specific die variety nailed down. I'm very confident it's a Vlack 18-87C based on the dot after "Georgius" and the shape of the ribbon. Here's what it would have looked like if the ground hadn't gotten to it:
It's listed as an R-4 so 200 or less specimens!
After finding a colonial copper I knew there had to be more so I started walking in expanding loops around the rock square. There were large rock piles everywhere and definitely iron signals, but it wasn't until I was 50 feet away up a little hill that I spotted the cellar hole. It's absolutely tiny (10'x10') but still deep since all four walls are intact. Right at the lip I get another penny signal that's under the leaves. Kicking them over I spot the tiny disc and even under the encrusted dirt I can see what it is:
A Trime! The obverse was pretty worn, but it looks to be an 1852. The reverse is great though and I'm happy with any silver at a cellar hole, worn or otherwise. That was it for coins, but there were a number of relics going down a slope leading away from the foundation.
Nice little pocket knife along with the usual pewter spoon fragments and the ferrule from a scythe handle. I did find a handful of buttons including a really nice designed one:
Oddly there were only targets going in one direction away from the foundation. The other 3/4 of the area was empty besides old iron can fragments. My theory is the homesite was in the process of being cleared/built when it was abandoned either because they passed away or gave up due to the sheer number of rocks in the ground. Given how many massive piles of rocks there are scattered about I favor the latter.
I did eventually finish the hike to the cellar hole I had planned on exploring, but my time was limited so I did just a 30min survey. It's another good one though; I picked up 3 coins in that time:
Pretty toasty but an 1864 2-cent, an 1899 V Nickel and a 1900 IHP. Looks like I have some more work to do!
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