A
Anonymous
Guest
Well, I got together with my hunting buddy here in Kingston after work today. We decided to take a drive down to Bath...which is a town founded by loyalists in the 1780's. Very small place, but tons of history. We were trying to locate an old hotel somewhere on the water, which existed in the 1700's...unfortunately we came up short in that department. We were driving back to Kingston when we noticed a beautiful old home...with a very large yard and huge trees. We pulled in and the guy gave us the go ahead to detect..he told us the house was built in 1850...and showed us some photo's of the place...some dating to the 1800's...and we couldn't help but grin. The house was unchanged, and more importantly...the yard appeared untouched!!
We decided to start close to the road...the least appealing of areas...and work our way towards the house...and this only being in the side lot. Not even the front yard. Most areas were full of old junk in the ground...and tons of lead. I tried an area about 30 feet to the left of the house in the side yard still. I got five great hits in a row, all of which turned out to be lead at about 9". And then...I made a huge mistake...one which I will learn from. I got another hit, pretty much in the same range as the lead. It read about 8"...down I dug. I dug a plug 6" deep and put my probe in the hole...nothing...my X-1 probe gets about 3" on a coin. So...I was about to give up thinking it was lead, and then decided what the hell. Convinced it was lead however, I dug down the side of the hole 3" deep. SCRAPE!!! I still didn't think much of it at that point, until I put all the 3" worth of dirt in my hand, and ran the probe over it. I sifted the soil through my fingers and voila. A beautiful SCRAPED coin sitting in my hand. Not a minor scrape either. My first 1700's coin...and I damaged it being careless and impatient. Never again!! Still a cool find though. The date is unreadable in the pic...but it's 1772...a George III copper.
Over the next 15 mins I dug an 1890 large cent, an 1857 One Penny Token, and this cool button with a backmark reading "Treble Standard Extra Rich".
We left right after that as my friend had to get home. Damn I wanted to stay as we covered only about 10% of the yard...if that. We didn't even get out front! Anyhow, I coughed up the 1890 large cent to the owner, and we asked if we could come back. He said we were welcome back as long as they are home.
Maybe heading back tomorrow.
Wess
We decided to start close to the road...the least appealing of areas...and work our way towards the house...and this only being in the side lot. Not even the front yard. Most areas were full of old junk in the ground...and tons of lead. I tried an area about 30 feet to the left of the house in the side yard still. I got five great hits in a row, all of which turned out to be lead at about 9". And then...I made a huge mistake...one which I will learn from. I got another hit, pretty much in the same range as the lead. It read about 8"...down I dug. I dug a plug 6" deep and put my probe in the hole...nothing...my X-1 probe gets about 3" on a coin. So...I was about to give up thinking it was lead, and then decided what the hell. Convinced it was lead however, I dug down the side of the hole 3" deep. SCRAPE!!! I still didn't think much of it at that point, until I put all the 3" worth of dirt in my hand, and ran the probe over it. I sifted the soil through my fingers and voila. A beautiful SCRAPED coin sitting in my hand. Not a minor scrape either. My first 1700's coin...and I damaged it being careless and impatient. Never again!! Still a cool find though. The date is unreadable in the pic...but it's 1772...a George III copper.
Over the next 15 mins I dug an 1890 large cent, an 1857 One Penny Token, and this cool button with a backmark reading "Treble Standard Extra Rich".
We left right after that as my friend had to get home. Damn I wanted to stay as we covered only about 10% of the yard...if that. We didn't even get out front! Anyhow, I coughed up the 1890 large cent to the owner, and we asked if we could come back. He said we were welcome back as long as they are home.
Maybe heading back tomorrow.
Wess