Spain as a hunting place was good, I've had a lot of good sites but one or two stand out..
when I was in Spain, me and a friend tried a site we called "PINAR DE LOS FRANCESAS"
a place next to some salt flats where even today salt is still mined by evaporation.
There was a wooded pine tree area on higher ground, 100 - 150 yards from the salt flats.
So we hunted there, and found only a few minor musket balls, and 1-2 buttons...
We blew it off as a waste...
............................................
Fast foward 2 years, and me and my x went back to this site to do some exploring..
and we started hunting closer to the salt water flats, all the way up next to the water.
It must have been some kind of modern day picnic area as there was some moderate amount of trash, but in this area, (2-3 acres ?) we uncovered many many old coins, musket
balls, French and Brittish and Spanish Napoleon war buttons, even a small solid shot cannon ball, 7 silver Real coins came out of this are, along with a single... 8 Real 1808
coin. probably over 100 other various coins, some of types I had never seen even after
hunting in Spain for 3 years. There were several "pockets" of coins, as if someone had lost
a small pouch or perse in a close area, 3-4 of these yielded 12-15 coins each,
and another "pocket" preduced 25 coins from of 3 different types of Vatican coins made
in Italy with dates of 1499 - 1501. there was no ground clutter like bricks or things to indicate there had ever been anything there, so you would not have been able to eyeball it.
My best guise is that it had been used During the Napoleon war of 1808 as an incampment, but because of the view of another major city Cadiz, 10 miles away, it
was probably a picnic area for better off, Spaniards and also for the Salt workers..
We found 2 variaties of Salt worker buttons, but also coins from other countries like
Gibraltar.
The soil was sand, and the targets sounded real nice and clean....
The 8 real was in a trashy area from the picnic people and I only got lucky with it, as
I was crossing this area fast to avoid aluminum cans and may machine gave an exploding
loud signal, I believed at first was trash, thinking it probably was a can, i took my shovel and fliped the sand up and I could see the shape of the coin on the ground, big and
round..... I almost died....
Yes I think that this was the best place I've ever hunted...
Richard
(check the website link to see some of those coins and buttons) (all over 10 years ago, as
I left Spain in 1996)
