The fall season came upon us, and the sun was setting earlier. I got out of school early and decided I had only a couple of hours to detect, so off I went to a site that I was told was very good for hunting not only coins, but also relics. It was a beautiful Fall day, the sun was warm to the touch even though it was setting. I came into the site, and I usually walk the path up the hill and decide where I would start, but today, I happen to see a trail on the right, and fate would have it, that I take that path for that particular day.
I continued up a slight grade up the trail, and notice what seemed like another smaller old trail, so I turn right and it went down hill some what, but not steep. There were many iron targets as I walk the trail, and about 100 yards from the top, My MineLab picked up a very sweet signal. I was new to the MineLab Explorer XS, which I had just bought that summer, and having 28 frequencies, it produces many different tones according to their ferrous and non-ferrous metal contents. Anyway, as I scanned the ground, it was a nice solid signal, and I trussed my tiger shark digger into the soil, and removed about four inches of dirt, the signal was still in the hole. I dug another three inches and could see this shiny object at the bottom, so I excavated it just like an Archaeologist would, and I brought out to the light after being dormant for so many years.
I removed the find, and began looking at this butter fly shape object of a brass metal nature, and I thought it was scrap metal, place it in my finds apron and almost discarded it when I got out, as the sun was nearing setting. I got home and took it out, and I rinsed it in warm water after lights dipping it soapy water. Now, I notice the gold guild that remain on some of the piece, and said to my self, this looks familiar, and it was ironic, but we had a shower curtain that we had bought and I like it because it had pilgrims or Quaker characters print on it, and as I cleaned and looked at the print, I saw the buckles on the shoes of the characters, and a big light came on my head. Yes, it was an old shoe buckle that were worn during colonial time, so I went on the Internet, and looked up some of them and my eyes were opened to some of the most beautiful shoe buckles I ever saw, and they came in many metals... from, gold to silver, brass, and pewter. That year I met Steve a historian from Virginia, he gives seminars on colonial settlements and the tools and wears of their day. Steve dated the shoe buckle at about 1748 to 1752. My first relic and oldest for the time I had began detecting again after 20 years. Thanks for reading...HH, and God Bless.
Philo_NY
