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Cow Pasture Hunt Yields Exciting Finds & Pocket Shot

Altamaha

Altamaha

Member
Hi All:

Just wanted to share the excitement that my hunting partner Steve and I experienced while hunting an old 1700s house site in a cow pasture, a couple of weekends ago. To level set, this site had been hunted by myself and another friend several times, a few years back. We had very good success on those hunts finding several large cents and quite a few Indian heads, plus some newer silver and wheat pennies. I had mentioned this to Steve so he was very interested in getting a chance to hunt it also. We headed out to the owner's farm and asked him if we could hunt this spot again.. He remembered me from before and without hesitation gave us permission to hunt it again. On the previous occasions, I had used my Eagle II SL and my friend his 6000 Di Pro, so I was was very interested in giving my E-Trac a try at this spot. My friend Steve was using his DFX.

The hunt started with us having to turn off and scale the electric fence and then suffer the ongoing curiosity of the cows who found everything about us (clothing, hair, detectors and sweaty flesh) interesting and potentially edible. After about a half hour of this torment the cows lost interest in us and finally headed off (but not for long) to graze at the other end of the pasture. About 10 minutes after the departure of the cows Steve struck pay dirt with his DFX by unearthing a 1760 Irish 'Voce Populi' Halfpence (turns out that these are quite valuable/rare, $300 - $400 on eBay in dug condition). A few minutes later I got a strong signal with my E-Trac and unearthed a beautiful Pewter bell, couldn't believe that I had missed it on the previous hunts. For the next hour or so we both dug a variety of interesting artifacts including several buckles, a skeleton key and a silver plated railroad pocket watch. Then as I was detecting near the electric fence I got a decent signal with my E-Trac (not great, but definitely worth digging). I kneeled down and cut a plug with my hunting knife and started removing soil. I figured that this was probably just another piece of brass and wasn't too excited. Then about 7 inches down I took out a big clump of dirt and to my surprise out popped two large cents (1819 &1824), I couldn't believe my eyes. From the photos you can see the imprint from where they had been stuck together all those years. Then as I look at the reverse side of one of them I saw another smaller imprint and my heart almost jumped into my mouth. I knew that there was another coin in the hole and from the size of the imprint and the age of the large cents I figured that the coin had to be silver, probably an early date dime or half dime I thought. I hurriedly found it with my pin pointer and to my disappointment it was a 1788 1 reale, oh well. I continued hunting along the fence and about 10 feet from the pocket shot I unearthed another large cent (1800) at about 6 inches, what a day. But how were these coins missed during the previous hunts? I guess the E-Trac does perform magic!

Oh yeah, and our friends the cows did return to torment us again, what a pain, but I guess you could call them cash cows. :)
 
Very nice haul
 
Great finds - those two large cents are in great condition. Two large cents in one hole is almost unheard of. I'd sure love to be "disappointed" to find a reale, especially with two large cents. A voce populi coin/token is an outstanding find too and full of history. I hope you are able to get back there and find some more goodies. Sounds like a great spot. HH!
 
Amazing finds. I am hunting pasture land down here in Mississippi that has had activity on it from the late 1700s through the present.
Congratulations and well done.
 
Goes4ever said:
hose coins are amazing shape.........u were disapointed to find a reale? why? I'd be thrilled!
Click to expand...

I was only disappointed with the reale because I thought that finally I had possibly found that elusive early (pre 1820s) U.S. silver (maybe even draped buss or flowing hair) coin. I have found many reales (1700s & early 1800s), but never the early U.S. silver, so I really had my hopes up.
 
Great finds.
NYS really has a lot to offer all of us detecting enthusiasts and continues to deliver finds back to the 1700's.
Being able to even identify those old coppers is a pleasant surprise in and of itself.
Your hunting buddy must be thrilled with his Irish copper.
Congratulations.
 
NYS does have alot to offer to detectorists.I live in ny and have found 75 large cents there.It all depends on the dirt you find them weather there decent or not.If you find large cents you will find seated or bust sooner or latter good luck.Two large cents and a reale is indead a great find.
 
Um, to your disappointment it was a 1 Real??? Did I read that right?? (BTW, if the denomination is 1 or below, it's Real, not Reale)

That's insane if you are truly disappointed for finding such a BEAUTIFUL early silver. I consider my 1 Real my PRIZED FIND, and yours is in way better shape. :unsure:
 
TokenDigger said:
Great finds - those two large cents are in great condition. Two large cents in one hole is almost unheard of. I'd sure love to be "disappointed" to find a reale, especially with two large cents. A voce populi coin/token is an outstanding find too and full of history. I hope you are able to get back there and find some more goodies. Sounds like a great spot. HH!
Click to expand...

You're correct, two large cents in one hole is rare. That's only the third time (with over 100 found, stopped counting at 70), in my 27 years of metal detecting that it's happened to me.


Oh, and here is a photo of my hunting partner's "Voce Populi" (uncleaned) for you guys to see.
 
EladSwerdna said:
Um, to your disappointment it was a 1 Real??? Did I read that right?? (BTW, if the denomination is 1 or below, it's Real, not Reale)

That's insane if you are truly disappointed for finding such a BEAUTIFUL early silver. I consider my 1 Real my PRIZED FIND, and yours is in way better shape. :unsure:
Click to expand...


You're right, thanks for the correction "Real". It was't so much that I was disappointed at finding a Real, but that the coin wasn't early U.S. silver. Considering that I had just found two early U.S large cents in the hole and looking at the imprint (half dime/dime size) on the back one of them, I thought surely that the remaing coin was probably early U.S. silver. I probably shouldn't have thought as much since I have hunted many late 1700s/early 1800s sites where early (pre 1820s) silver could have been lost, but when found the silver has always been Spanish. It's just that there wasn't that many of the early U.S silver coins minted, look at the mintage numbers. Because of the the shortage of early U.S. coinage (especially silver), Spanish coins were a lot more plentiful and was considered legal tender by the U.S. until 1850.
 
I have only found 4 LC's all last year, and three was in one day, and as crazy as it sounds, 2 were in one hole as well!
 
Awesome finds! That's quite a story. Congratulations and thanks for the pictures moo....I mean too!!!:rofl:

NebTrac
 
Congratulations on a super days detecting.
Yeah mate...those pesky reales are a big pain.
Sent it down to me and I'll toss it out in the trash for you. :ausflag:
Fabulous finds, cows or no cows.

T59
 
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