silversweeper
New member
Hope you all don't mind a bit of a long story...if so, just skip to the pictures. It's been so long since I've found anything worth posting about that I got bored and changed my posting id (was bael41)! I joined the forum earlier this summer and, at least for the first few months, was enjoying a decent streak of good finds with each hunt. During the middle part of July, however, I hit a drought almost as severe as the heat and rain-drought we've had here during that time. I hunted every week anyway, long hours of hot sun and horrible humidity most days + rock hard dirt. After a while I nearly gave up and packed away my etrac. My pictures with this post, in fact, include ALL of my finds for the past nearly 2 months!! My silver drought finally ended a few days ago, though, and in the period of the last 3 days I managed more good finds than in the whole previous 2 months! About a week ago I was detecting a yard where the new owner had peeled off all the sod and cut out a bunch of brush. I and a few others had found a few civil war mini balls and buttons (alas, no buttons for me...just a couple of big mini-balls and one smaller one that appears to have been heavily chewed, one nice round ball, a percussion cap and a rivet). While I was there, hoping to find one or two pieces that maybe we'd missed somehow, a lady walked across the street and inquired of my luck. I recognized her immediately as the wife of a man I used to work with several years ago. He'd passed away about 5 years past and she and I shared memories of him while we chatted. Longer story shortened, it turned out that she lives in a house across the street that I had been wanting to detect very badly. Her house was built @1860 and the yard sets up from the road on a high bank. A place that just looks relic-rich. In any case, because of my relationship with her late husband, she invited me over to detect. They'd been there since 1974 and she doesn't think anyone has ever detected it at all!!! Not sure if it's because most of the detectorists in my area are afraid to ask permission or because her neighbor has a tendancy to chase people off....lol. In any case, the first afternoon of real hunting I found a 1916 mercury (alas...no D mark no matter how hard I tried to conjure one!), a 1964 Rosie with a bad mower ding in the side, a 1905 V nickel (my first that I could actually read both sides on!), a buck or so in new change, the little blue 1930's toy car, and my very last target was a ring with a coin soldered to the top. I thought it was penny sized and figured for sure that I had at least found an indian but it turned out to be a '74 memorial! I thought "now why in the heck would someone bother?!" but then I recalled that the lady's late husband used to wear a ring that looked like that. I showed it to her and she couldn't believe it. Said she didn't even know Bill had lost it. So I took it home, cleaned, straightened and polished it, and returned it to her the next day. Her eyes just lit up like I'd given her something incredibly precious. ('74 was the year they bought and moved into the house). So back to detecting and within an hour or so I'd found a 1912 V nickel, better shape than the '05, and a few wheats. Then I decided to hit the side of the street-side bank of the yard and ...wham-o, I pulled out a smaller three-ringer mini ball (58 caliber I think) and close by were two round balls. All three are some of the nicer bullets I've found. So I showed her those on the way back to the vehicle and promised to be back soon. I returned the next morning on my way home from my son's sitter and stayed about an hour, found a couple more wheats and some memorials AND.....my very first gold ring. I nearly had to change my pants. It is a big wide wedding band, probably from the '30's and the marking inside says "SOLID GOLD"!! I could have been knocked over by a feather I believe. In any case I didn't figure it was actually solid gold because it was a bit light and because I'm just not that lucky normally. I took it to a jeweler friend and he tested it at 10K. It weighs about 4 grams so I'm figuring about $100.00 worth! Way cool. Anyway, am looking forward to going back next week. I found all that in the small front yard and in adverse conditions due to powerlines running directly over head and lots of trash in the ground. I'm going to try a small coil in the front to see if I missed any goodies and then hit the much bigger back yard!! I have a feeling that I'm going to find a few more firsts before I'm through there. And of course, just to be sure, I'm going to make sure that the wedding band didn't belong to her as well. I don't think it did because I made sure to ask her twice if she'd lost any jewelry of any kind that I needed to keep an eye out for.
Just goes to show (me) that persistance pays off, often just when we're ready to throw in the towel.
Just goes to show (me) that persistance pays off, often just when we're ready to throw in the towel.