I went back to my sawmill site this morning and first hit the iron infested homestead itself and got two buttons. Both are very old, one looks like a spunback and the other is a cast button with BEST GILT punched in a Cartouche, which I believe makes both of them from roughly the 1790's.
I dug a few shotgun casings and some buckshot lead and decided it was time to slowly work my way through the woods towards the other homestead where I found the broken silver buckle last week.
I knew there was an area between the two places that I got a few old buttons on a couple of the hunts and a good number of iron hits, so I think it was a "work area" and those sites often produce goodies.
As I slowly and methodically searched that area I was rewarded with a beautiful high tone on the the Explorer and the crosshair was in the upper right and not moving around and depth indicated something around 8-10 inches.
When all those factors happen, and I am in an old area, I am almost certain the target will be an old coin. So I did take a photo of the screen showing the crosshair position and spot where the target lies. (Usually taking a photo like that before digging results in diggin up a washer LOL)
Well, it was an old coin and from about 8 inches came a corroded looking large copper lying on the side of the pile. One side was blueish with corrosion and the other side is darn near perfect, that seems to happen a lot with the old coppers. I am sure it has to do with how they have layed in the ground for 200+ years.
When I got home I identified the variety of this Liberty Cap as a Sheldon 91 and the one I found on April 30th at this site is a Sheldon 84. Both coins have very fine details for such an old coin, only corrosion knocks the value down.
I did continue on and try to find the rest of the silver buckle but all I dug at that site was about half dozen shotgun casings and two more 50 caliber shell casings fired from the WW2 gunnery range that was nearby.
I am sure another goodie or two still awaits me, but this site has been stingy with only allowing me 3 coins (all 1700's) and over 15 buttons with none appearing newer than around 1830.
I may or may not get back their until this fall, but if I do, I hope again to have a nice day like I did today.
I am including a photo of the April 30th Large Cent find for comparison purposes.
HH
Don in SJ
I dug a few shotgun casings and some buckshot lead and decided it was time to slowly work my way through the woods towards the other homestead where I found the broken silver buckle last week.
I knew there was an area between the two places that I got a few old buttons on a couple of the hunts and a good number of iron hits, so I think it was a "work area" and those sites often produce goodies.
As I slowly and methodically searched that area I was rewarded with a beautiful high tone on the the Explorer and the crosshair was in the upper right and not moving around and depth indicated something around 8-10 inches.
When all those factors happen, and I am in an old area, I am almost certain the target will be an old coin. So I did take a photo of the screen showing the crosshair position and spot where the target lies. (Usually taking a photo like that before digging results in diggin up a washer LOL)
Well, it was an old coin and from about 8 inches came a corroded looking large copper lying on the side of the pile. One side was blueish with corrosion and the other side is darn near perfect, that seems to happen a lot with the old coppers. I am sure it has to do with how they have layed in the ground for 200+ years.
When I got home I identified the variety of this Liberty Cap as a Sheldon 91 and the one I found on April 30th at this site is a Sheldon 84. Both coins have very fine details for such an old coin, only corrosion knocks the value down.
I did continue on and try to find the rest of the silver buckle but all I dug at that site was about half dozen shotgun casings and two more 50 caliber shell casings fired from the WW2 gunnery range that was nearby.
I am sure another goodie or two still awaits me, but this site has been stingy with only allowing me 3 coins (all 1700's) and over 15 buttons with none appearing newer than around 1830.
I may or may not get back their until this fall, but if I do, I hope again to have a nice day like I did today.
I am including a photo of the April 30th Large Cent find for comparison purposes.
HH
Don in SJ
