Colonial/1812 Hunt w/ Ahab8 and OutdoorAdv! Pewters, coppers, tombac and Bells

Scrappy

Gold Member
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Golden Thread
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Location
17th century
🥇 Banner finds
7
Detector(s) used
Minelab CTX 3030 & XP Deus
Primary Interest:
Other
UPDATE: New Pics added.

So I got away for a hard earned vacation - and what a vacation it was...

Earlier this summer after Abe was kind enough to invite us up, Ahab8, OutdoorAdv, and I decided to plan a killer fall hunt. I've been friends with Abe for close to 2-1/2? years, and Brad for about a year, but haven't met either one of them until this trip.

So I met up with Brad in Connecticut and we carpooled to Maine to connect with Abe. We quickly repacked at Abe's house and off we went. Crossing the lake, we loaded the canoe with so much equipment that we literally had 5" of freeboard. The paddle was about 1.5 miles to the island but the view alone was worth it.
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Once we arrived we quickly got into digging some signals. Brad scored early but it took me a while to adjust. I was able to score a few nice flat buttons and finally, a beautiful pewter US general service button!
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After a 5-Star dinner of spit fired sirloin strip steak, potatoes, and roasted garlic, we smoked cigars and had a couple beer. That's when Abe had a great idea to do a night scouting mission. We quickly found iron and followed by scoring a button each, of which I found a pewter underwear button.
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After finding a foundation that was on no known map, I cleaned up real nicely with a few iron spoons (not pictured yet) and a beautiful crotal bell!
ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477477903.006360.webp followed by my first rat-tail spoon (not pictured yet).
Abe and Brad ripped on me good for hogging all the good stuff;)

The a bucket-lister came out - a pewter rat-tail spoon!! Absolutely amazing.

After a downpour all night we were back at it. I was sure to ring my crotal bell in the morning to wake everyone up! Haha!

We all dug some more buttons and I scored a ton of musketballs in the mud flats. Brad also cleaned up on some signals my CTX missed. That GPX is something else. Being in a grouped area and mostly impacted, Brad and I figured that it must have been a target range. We must have dug 30 round balls between the two of us.

We continue on the mud flats and I dig a French copper with a square hole in it. Turned out to be a French Sol. Killer hunt!
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After that we packed up and headed home to rest our sore backs, and eat 75 lbs of sushi. Abe was slightly off with his 40lb estimate;) lol. Here's a pic of us loadingImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478056.580059.webp


The next day we hit two islands, and the second one paid off big time. Here is a pic of Brads head...ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478089.898517.webp and Abe ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478137.436589.webp
With just a little searching, we came across an interesting pile of rocks. Within a few minutes I came across a blowhole button (not pictured yet). Another first!!! It was game on after that and we went to town. After a few more buttons I had a great signal - a KG2.
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Buttons and spoons started popping out everywhere and we had a great time. Everyone scored some beautiful items. I found some more buttons, mostly tombacs, all early. We estimate the site as mid 18th century, and nothing newer than ~1780's. Here's a picture from the shoreline ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478535.789624.webp

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478193.751680.webpImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478211.559844.webpsilver faced buttons, no back marks.ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478228.550083.webp

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478264.086578.webpImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478275.526301.webpImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478288.497503.webpImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478307.792158.webpImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478323.150382.webp

Button with thread....ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478355.736434.webp Pewter baby spoonImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478372.965411.webpa KG2 that didn't fare well in cleaning
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ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477478468.337676.webp


What a hunt. Abe was a gracious host and really put in the effort to make our trip a memorable one. Brad, meh, he's ok....just kidding. Great guys, great times, and a trip I'll remember always.
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To wrap things up, we all had MONSTER lobsta' rolls.

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Enjoy and good hunts!

Steve

Just added:

1812 Iron nails used for the fort all cleaned up

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477752786.807138.webp

And a colonial iron spoon. It was folded in half!!

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477762732.477391.webp

And finally, a Crushed Blowhole button crushed by that Abe fella- AKA "Magilla Gorilla"

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Rat tail ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477766025.895855.webpImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1477766035.748946.webp
 

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Upvote 36
outstanding.gif
Nice finds and food look great! :laughing7: Thanks for sharing...
 

That sure looks like it was a fun trip. Congrats on some nice finds
 

Awesome post man :occasion14: You forgot to mention the part where you appeased the Coin Gods by releasing a Silver Washington Quarter back into the wild and were instantly rewarded with that killer token. I don't see the merc in there either. :laughing7: Me... well I kept that hideous silver rosie and got burned in the coin category. haha I really like that bell and it was awesome to see you dig that marked pewter... those little pewter cuff buttons are tough to find. What a great time dude... I really like the picture of the three of us after digging in the dirt all day. It'll be even more fun to go back and read our three posts 6 months from now and remember the trip all over again. I'm going to edit my post now and put a link to yours at the top of it!
 

Great post & pictures.

The buttons would point to a wider window than 1780s, maybe even tipping into 1800.
 

Great post man! That little pewter spoon is something I don't believe I've ever seen before. Glad you were able to both score your first rat tails and that petal bell is a beauty. It was fun trying to figure out what your copper was with the giant rectangular cutout. That's a very cool piece in my opinion. But the US pewter may be my fave. It was so cool to see you pull your first marked pewter. Pretty sure I was way more excited than you were lol. I'm looking forward to the next time we are able to get together and hopefully dig up some more Colonial goodness. Truly an awesome few days.
Btw everybody I'm not really that short! I'm standing in a hole....I swear lol
 

Hey--there's our T-Net boys!! Loving these posts about your detecting adventures! Look how teeny that crotal bell is! Great buttons, and what a gorgeous area to hunt in! Congrats on all of your finds. -Lisa & John
 

Quite an adventure gentlemen! You guys obviously roughed it to get to those isolated relics. Paddling 1.5 miles to an island? Where's the motorboat? Well you all did good, especially in the eating department - lol
 

Hey Steve, the item in the top left of this pic looks kind of like a bayonet scabbard clip. If you are digging War of 1812 buttons and musketballs, I wouldn't be surprised to see a bayonet scabbard clip turn up.


Here are some examples:

Side.webpTop.webp
 

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Another outstanding post about the "Great Maine Hunt". It's been fun to read about this through the eyes of each of you, but the common theme is that you guys had a blast both with the digging as well as hanging out. Thanks for all those site photos Steve, especially that panoramic view which says it all. And congrats on a nice pile of early finds. I'd be happy with a single flat button right now, but not sure when I'll be able to get back out. Guess I'll have to keep living vicariously through you guys. Again, great post!
 

You guys are truly dedicated.
Congrats on all of your finds and thanks for the literary wrap up.
How do you guys stay so healthy looking after gorging yourself on so much food? lol
 

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That sure looks like it was a fun trip. Congrats on some nice finds

We had a great time Art. The story was written in three posts, so if you read all three you'll probably end of with 60% of the story. The rest will wash out over time, if we remember it at all!
 

Awesome post man :occasion14: You forgot to mention the part where you appeased the Coin Gods by releasing a Silver Washington Quarter back into the wild and were instantly rewarded with that killer token. I don't see the merc in there either. :laughing7: Me... well I kept that hideous silver rosie and got burned in the coin category. haha I really like that bell and it was awesome to see you dig that marked pewter... those little pewter cuff buttons are tough to find. What a great time dude... I really like the picture of the three of us after digging in the dirt all day. It'll be even more fun to go back and read our three posts 6 months from now and remember the trip all over again. I'm going to edit my post now and put a link to yours at the top of it!

Shhhhh! That's a secret to finding older stuff. Don't anger the coin gods more than you already did by keeping that Roosevelt dime. I probably would have found more but I forgot to rerelease the merc.....

The bell was a favourite. I enjoyed ringing it for you two the following three days.
 

Great post & pictures.

The buttons would point to a wider window than 1780s, maybe even tipping into 1800.

Thx Cru. I agree about the buttons. The ones dug on the first site were most certainly later. So you think a few of those tombac are that late as well?
 

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Thats a killer hunt you guys went on. congrats on all the finds.
 

Outstanding post Steve. The pictures are excellent as well as the finds. Looks like a good time had by all. 3 days of straight digging sounds like heaven right about now.
 

Thx Cru. I agree about the buttons. The ones dug on the first site were most certainly later. So you think a few of those tombac are that late as well?
Steve, here are my thoughts on tombac buttons found in North America (for what it's worth). Tombac buttons were still being worn on coats (and lost) well into the first decade of the 19th century. But I believe they stopped being manufactured by the button makers in the 1780s when brass buttons started to take over. That's my story and I'm sticking to it :thumbsup:
 

Great posts (read all 3) and saves. Seems it was a relic hunter dream day ;)
Thanks for posting.
 

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