HUGE gold in the middle of a field!

Fooleeze

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2018
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340
Location
Copley, OH
So in an effort to practice my social distancing from the world, I returned to one of my farm field permissions in the area. I arrived there with the intention of exploring the outer reaches of the farm to see if I could find any more iron beds. So I hopped out of my car and started heading across the field. The field I was crossing I have detected very sporadically before but really found nothing but trash, mostly can slaw. As I'm walking and swinging I get a loud 79 to 80 signal on my AT max. it says it's about two inches deep, and to me it really sounds like another piece of aluminum. Even as I pulled this out about 3 in deep, I still thought it was a piece of aluminum when it was stuck in the dirt clod. Then reality started to set in.

This is only my fourth gold find, and by far my largest. While it's only 10K the thing is huge. It weighs in at 13.5 grams. and not only that but there is seems to be some interesting history to it. This is some kind of a token from a baseball team on the US Navy submarine base in Connecticut from 1919. And there's a name engraved on the back. There are a few little scratches and cracks, but with a light cleaning, the dirt came right out of them. (I learned my lesson before about 'plated' items, this one is certainly not plated). I am amazed how well this looks considering how long it has been in a farm field.

I will do a little bit of research to see if I can find out who it belonged to and if they lived in this area. But it sure made for a great social distancing hunt. I circled the area for a while and found nothing else.

I later went on to find a few more goodies during the hunt, including an early 1900s American Legion token, a really beat up US Large Cent, and a cool little cuff button with a design on it.
 

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Awesome find and very cool piece of history!

I always wonder how anyone ever detects a big field Unless they know there was a house there. Was there a house?
 
I'm sure others with way more experience than me can add a lot to it. . . but. . .

I had found evidence of an old house in one of the fields from historical maps in the mid to late 1800s. I had hunted that area pretty well and to date have found 2 large cents, a few completely toasted V nickels, a Barber half dollar, and a few buttons and other relics. On this trip I was trying the other (less glamorous) method, I was just walking the fields trying to find concentrations of iron, or signs of brick, pottery, glass, things that would lead me to believe another homesite might have been there. That's when I stumbled upon this find. Literally in the middle of the field, with pretty much nothing else around it.

It really shocks me how lucky and random we can get sometimes. Walking through a 20 acre field wildly swinging a detector, and just happen to get the coil over top of a find like this. And I was not 'slowing down' or 'gridding' this area, I was really just walking across it with the detector swinging.



Awesome find and very cool piece of history!

I always wonder how anyone ever detects a big field Unless they know there was a house there. Was there a house?
 
Killer find! Have fun researching it. Fortunately you have quite a bit of info to go on.
 
It really shocks me how lucky and random we can get sometimes. Walking through a 20 acre field wildly swinging a detector, and just happen to get the coil over top of a find like this. And I was not 'slowing down' or 'gridding' this area, I was really just walking across it with the detector swinging.


Some things are just meant to be. Great find!
 
It really shocks me how lucky and random we can get sometimes. Walking through a 20 acre field wildly swinging a detector, and just happen to get the coil over top of a find like this. And I was not 'slowing down' or 'gridding' this area, I was really just walking across it with the detector swinging.

This is what I call 'lucky swinging' and always surprised that we actually finds good stuff this way.
It has happened to me and also know AirmetTango has found gold rings doing this on his way back to the car.

Great find and I drive past that Sub base on my way to Rhode Island.
 
Congratulations That is a real neat find. Nice value score also. Spent a few months at that base back in 62 going thru Basic Enlisted Submarine School. Its odd some times when find good stuff just nonchalantly swinging the coil. My two best finds were just that Wasn't really detecting just moving from one place on the beach to another. But even thought I did not have my mind on what I was doing my detector sure did.
 
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WOW What an awesome find! Congrats!
 
As an update to everyone, I did look at some historical maps from the area for that time frame (1900 - 1927, approximately) and I couldn't find the name anywhere near on the maps. I've also got an email out to the national archives, who apparently should have info on rolls / enlistments for the Navy at that time, but I'm waiting to hear back. Anybody have any other ideas on where to research?
 
.... Anybody have any other ideas on where to research?

I don't have an exact answer , other than to say this: You have enough clues/data on your item that would seem to be able to track-things-down. And there is an ENTIRE HOBBY WORLD out there, that loves nothing more than to play with geneological stuff. They have their own websites, FB pages, etc.....

I had one time found a silver military item with nothing but a name and military dog tag # on it, from the Korean era, at a nearby military base. And some geneology sleuths, that had an entire website dedicated to the return of military dog-tags, tracked down the surviving heirs (daughters now in their 70s) for me.

I forget the name of that hobbyist group, but .... just like us md'ing geeks, enjoyed nothing more than to be detectives about this stuff.
 
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