bearbqd
Elite Member
I have returned***Now with location pics**
Hey there fellow diggers. I haven't been around in a long time since I got back from Iraq. Not to say that I haven't been digging, but I hadn't really found anything all that significant until recently.
Here's some great recent finds that I think you will all enjoy. Here's the background of the first several photos. Recently a friend of mine at work said that he thought it would be fine to detect the property that he is building a house on. The property actually belongs to a wealthy landowner that lives just down the street in this historical, rural area. Of course I jump at any chance to hunt new ground, especially when there is history involved. The road that the house is being built on was around before the civil war and troops were known to have been up and down this road during the civil war.
Well, the very first good thing I found on the lot was the nice looking mercury dime. "Now we're talking", I thought to myself. I then found a recent coin spill about 4 feet away beside a large tree that amounted to a couple of bucks. Not bad so far. After finding a lot of trash ( a house that was built in the 40's and survived until the 80's burned down here and they bulldozed the debri into the basement and covered it with dirt--imagine how many coins are down there :[ ), I found a Civil War era Colt .44 bullet in near perfect shape. It's in the first shot with the other bullet and assortment of relics.
Well, during this time, my buddy said he thought he could get us onto the guy's property down the street (about a 1/4 mile) where there was open fields and some horses that stay there. On the site is a preserved small stone fort (sorry, I haven't taken pics of that yet) that was made to protect against indian attacks. It is called a 3 mile fort as there was one every three miles in a straight line. This is the best preserved one in the area.
I was biting at the bit at the prospect of detecting this area (all 27 acres of it). It supposedly also had a historic mansion on the site near the fort that was no longer there. The owner had filled in the foundation in the early seventies when he acquired the land....DOH! Well, needless to say, we were allowed exclusivity to the property and we jumped on it. When we got permission we only had about 30 minutes of light left, but raced over there. I immediately started detecting right around the fort and got a good signal. I dug down and started pulling up some sort of chain. It must have been decorative as I can't see it supporting much weight. It looks to be made of brass and has long, flat links. Sorry, no picks of it yet.
It got dark quickly, but with flashlights, we kept going for a little while. My buddy got a good signal, but without a pinpointer, he needed my assistance. I went over and with the trusty sunray probe I found two nice items-- an old button and a thimble. Cool.
We headed back to this site for the next several days and started finding some great stuff. My bud was the first to pull out a coin--a clipped 1818 Large Cent! Sweet!...There ARE coins here. I knew there had to be. Little did I know what great coins would start coming out of the ground. The next day I found a clipped copper myself, but it's too corroded to see what it is.
The day after that, I went by myself and after about a half hour got a loud, great signal about 6 inches down. When I pulled up my plug I saw the large, and I mean LARGE green disc laying there on end. I plucked it up and didn't even think it was a coin at first as it was so thick and heavy and had a wide rim. After getting it home and cleaning it a little, I saw that it was indeed a large cent but saw that the head was facing the wrong way. Holy cow! Could I have found a 1700's large cent??? With a date not really visible, I jumped on my coin redbook to see what I had. With the description of large planchet large cents from 1793 to 1795 and the weight of this coin I determined that it was definitely one of these dates. With a jeweler's occular, I can just make out what I believe to be the tiniest bit of a number four left so I believe it to be a 1794. Wow, my second 18th century coin. (Maybe my third, but I'll tell that story later). I was ecstatic over this find and couldn't wait to get back.
During these first several days, I also started finding nice Indian Head pennies. I have found four so far. The dates are 1864 (the nicest one), 1890, and two 1897's. Lot's of buttons have been found here as well.
Ok, I know this is getting long winded and I apologize, but these finds deserve their story to be told.
On the fourth day, I was alone again and after awhile I started detecting toward the fort again. I came across what I thought was one of my buddies previous holes and got a broken but nice signal. I dug down and out popped my third large copper--an 1837 Large Cent in great shape. I tell you, there is a special feeling when pulling out these large coppers and I hope all of you can experience it at one time or another.
I continued carefully listening and moving the coil extra slow over the immediate area. I soon got another fairly decent signal. I dug and found a bent piece of metal that appears to be pewter. I scanned the hole with my probe and didn't hear anything or so I thought. I thought I might have heard a blip toward the corner and scanned there again. Yep, a small blip. I carefully took my small tool and dug out a couple of inches of soil in the corner and rescanned with the probe. WHoa...another beautiful coin type tone. Being very careful, I plucked out more dirt and was rewarded with my second great copper of the day--an 1828. This was TWO beautiful large cents within three feet of each other found within ten minutes of each other. I was on cloud nine. I rescanned the small area and again got another tone. I pulled up what I originally thought was my buddy's previous hole and started pulling up more of that chain from the first night. This wasn't my buddies hole...it was mine, lol. Being in a hurry that first night, I wasn't being careful and had gone right over these two beautiful cents. I'm sure glad I came back to that spot.
After detecting for about a week, I had my sites on another civil war site near Harpers Ferry, and I will save those finds for my next thread. Thanks for reading if you have made it this far. Also, wish me luck. We just got permission to hunt 500 acres of farm land that had civil war activity. Some incredible things have been found in fields adjacent to this property. I can't wait. Hopefully we'll start hunting it on Tuesday.
Hey there fellow diggers. I haven't been around in a long time since I got back from Iraq. Not to say that I haven't been digging, but I hadn't really found anything all that significant until recently.
Here's some great recent finds that I think you will all enjoy. Here's the background of the first several photos. Recently a friend of mine at work said that he thought it would be fine to detect the property that he is building a house on. The property actually belongs to a wealthy landowner that lives just down the street in this historical, rural area. Of course I jump at any chance to hunt new ground, especially when there is history involved. The road that the house is being built on was around before the civil war and troops were known to have been up and down this road during the civil war.
Well, the very first good thing I found on the lot was the nice looking mercury dime. "Now we're talking", I thought to myself. I then found a recent coin spill about 4 feet away beside a large tree that amounted to a couple of bucks. Not bad so far. After finding a lot of trash ( a house that was built in the 40's and survived until the 80's burned down here and they bulldozed the debri into the basement and covered it with dirt--imagine how many coins are down there :[ ), I found a Civil War era Colt .44 bullet in near perfect shape. It's in the first shot with the other bullet and assortment of relics.
Well, during this time, my buddy said he thought he could get us onto the guy's property down the street (about a 1/4 mile) where there was open fields and some horses that stay there. On the site is a preserved small stone fort (sorry, I haven't taken pics of that yet) that was made to protect against indian attacks. It is called a 3 mile fort as there was one every three miles in a straight line. This is the best preserved one in the area.
I was biting at the bit at the prospect of detecting this area (all 27 acres of it). It supposedly also had a historic mansion on the site near the fort that was no longer there. The owner had filled in the foundation in the early seventies when he acquired the land....DOH! Well, needless to say, we were allowed exclusivity to the property and we jumped on it. When we got permission we only had about 30 minutes of light left, but raced over there. I immediately started detecting right around the fort and got a good signal. I dug down and started pulling up some sort of chain. It must have been decorative as I can't see it supporting much weight. It looks to be made of brass and has long, flat links. Sorry, no picks of it yet.
It got dark quickly, but with flashlights, we kept going for a little while. My buddy got a good signal, but without a pinpointer, he needed my assistance. I went over and with the trusty sunray probe I found two nice items-- an old button and a thimble. Cool.
We headed back to this site for the next several days and started finding some great stuff. My bud was the first to pull out a coin--a clipped 1818 Large Cent! Sweet!...There ARE coins here. I knew there had to be. Little did I know what great coins would start coming out of the ground. The next day I found a clipped copper myself, but it's too corroded to see what it is.
The day after that, I went by myself and after about a half hour got a loud, great signal about 6 inches down. When I pulled up my plug I saw the large, and I mean LARGE green disc laying there on end. I plucked it up and didn't even think it was a coin at first as it was so thick and heavy and had a wide rim. After getting it home and cleaning it a little, I saw that it was indeed a large cent but saw that the head was facing the wrong way. Holy cow! Could I have found a 1700's large cent??? With a date not really visible, I jumped on my coin redbook to see what I had. With the description of large planchet large cents from 1793 to 1795 and the weight of this coin I determined that it was definitely one of these dates. With a jeweler's occular, I can just make out what I believe to be the tiniest bit of a number four left so I believe it to be a 1794. Wow, my second 18th century coin. (Maybe my third, but I'll tell that story later). I was ecstatic over this find and couldn't wait to get back.
During these first several days, I also started finding nice Indian Head pennies. I have found four so far. The dates are 1864 (the nicest one), 1890, and two 1897's. Lot's of buttons have been found here as well.
Ok, I know this is getting long winded and I apologize, but these finds deserve their story to be told.
On the fourth day, I was alone again and after awhile I started detecting toward the fort again. I came across what I thought was one of my buddies previous holes and got a broken but nice signal. I dug down and out popped my third large copper--an 1837 Large Cent in great shape. I tell you, there is a special feeling when pulling out these large coppers and I hope all of you can experience it at one time or another.
I continued carefully listening and moving the coil extra slow over the immediate area. I soon got another fairly decent signal. I dug and found a bent piece of metal that appears to be pewter. I scanned the hole with my probe and didn't hear anything or so I thought. I thought I might have heard a blip toward the corner and scanned there again. Yep, a small blip. I carefully took my small tool and dug out a couple of inches of soil in the corner and rescanned with the probe. WHoa...another beautiful coin type tone. Being very careful, I plucked out more dirt and was rewarded with my second great copper of the day--an 1828. This was TWO beautiful large cents within three feet of each other found within ten minutes of each other. I was on cloud nine. I rescanned the small area and again got another tone. I pulled up what I originally thought was my buddy's previous hole and started pulling up more of that chain from the first night. This wasn't my buddies hole...it was mine, lol. Being in a hurry that first night, I wasn't being careful and had gone right over these two beautiful cents. I'm sure glad I came back to that spot.
After detecting for about a week, I had my sites on another civil war site near Harpers Ferry, and I will save those finds for my next thread. Thanks for reading if you have made it this far. Also, wish me luck. We just got permission to hunt 500 acres of farm land that had civil war activity. Some incredible things have been found in fields adjacent to this property. I can't wait. Hopefully we'll start hunting it on Tuesday.
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