Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
My good friend Evan (metalev) flew out from the west coast for a visit last week with the intent of hunting each of the 5 full days he was to be here. Well, we came close to that by digging on 4 of those days, and spent the one rainy day at the Jamestown museums and antique stores. It was fun spending time with Evan and I think he had a great time as well, especially since he went home with a big pile of early relics and coins. I'm sure he'll be posting those later this week. I also wanted to thank by buds Dan and Joey for getting out with us, and I think a good time was had by all.
The first hunt was last Thurs with Dan, and I already posted my results from that which included that incredible 1729 one reale plus a cut piece. After the rain on Fri, we took a road trip on Sat and hooked up with Joey in a remote rural county, and I was finally able to secure permission to hunt at a site I've been trying to get into for several years. But it turned out to be mostly 1800s stuff with a little colonial thrown in so we moved on to find another, hopefully older site. After striking out at a great looking field overlooking a creek we ended up at one of Joey's old spots where he's found multiple colonial silver. It was hard going in the machine gun iron, and we really had to work for the few items we dug, but each of us came home with a few keepers.
On Sun Evan and I had to wait until almost noon to get out due to the very unseasonably cold and windy weather (mid 20s), and returned to one of my old sites that has still been producing as of late (1630s land patent and adjacent fields). And it did not disappoint as both of us came home with a nice selection of goodies. At this site I eyeballed a few pipe stems, and one was marked "LE" which represents the Bristol pipemaker Llewellyn Evans who was in business in the 1680s.
Over the weekend I finally made contact with the overseer of a huge and potentially loaded property that saw activity from the early 1600s, through colonial times, and into the CW. But unfortunately the site is off limits almost all the time due to other regular activities there, and the only day that was available over the next 2 weeks just happened to be yesterday. So Evan and I were excited to check it out, and our hopes were quickly satisfied as we left the truck and immediately walked right into a huge brick and iron debris field. We hunkered down there for a bit and dug several buttons, and Evan found a piece of cut silver. I also found a trash pit area and recovered a shovel blade at the bottom. It was located below other debris that dated to the early-to-mid 1800s so I guess the shovel dates to that general period. We then moved on to an adjacent spot in the field, and started digging some huge musketballs and a couple of flat buttons. In spite of quickly finding a relic-rich area and hunkering down there, we decided to continue exploring the property in search of the suspected CW camp. But as we rounded the bend to the first alcove we unexpectedly ran into a nice little colonial house site, and dug buttons, buckle pieces, and other period items including a huge 38mm decorated flat button I was able to recover. It's the exact same size as a silver dollar. Again, we decided to leave that productive area to continue the scouting trip. Probably 300-400 yards away we ran into yet another area that started producing a smattering of early colonial relics although we could not find the iron patch. In the adjacent ravine Evan was digging loads of melted lead and small brass when suddenly a half reale appeared. On the nearby plateau I dug a colonial hoe, a cool looking star-shaped leather adornment, and eyeballed 2 pipe stems with huge bores which date to the 1600s. We left that spot after about 45 min and went wandering a bit more before running out of time.
The group shot below shows my keepers from the 4 days of hunting with Evan, and include the ones I posted last Thurs. Guess I could use a short break before catching up on some work around the house, but hopefully I can get out again before the end of the week. And again, I want to thank all my buddies for the fun times we had over the last few days.
The first hunt was last Thurs with Dan, and I already posted my results from that which included that incredible 1729 one reale plus a cut piece. After the rain on Fri, we took a road trip on Sat and hooked up with Joey in a remote rural county, and I was finally able to secure permission to hunt at a site I've been trying to get into for several years. But it turned out to be mostly 1800s stuff with a little colonial thrown in so we moved on to find another, hopefully older site. After striking out at a great looking field overlooking a creek we ended up at one of Joey's old spots where he's found multiple colonial silver. It was hard going in the machine gun iron, and we really had to work for the few items we dug, but each of us came home with a few keepers.
On Sun Evan and I had to wait until almost noon to get out due to the very unseasonably cold and windy weather (mid 20s), and returned to one of my old sites that has still been producing as of late (1630s land patent and adjacent fields). And it did not disappoint as both of us came home with a nice selection of goodies. At this site I eyeballed a few pipe stems, and one was marked "LE" which represents the Bristol pipemaker Llewellyn Evans who was in business in the 1680s.
Over the weekend I finally made contact with the overseer of a huge and potentially loaded property that saw activity from the early 1600s, through colonial times, and into the CW. But unfortunately the site is off limits almost all the time due to other regular activities there, and the only day that was available over the next 2 weeks just happened to be yesterday. So Evan and I were excited to check it out, and our hopes were quickly satisfied as we left the truck and immediately walked right into a huge brick and iron debris field. We hunkered down there for a bit and dug several buttons, and Evan found a piece of cut silver. I also found a trash pit area and recovered a shovel blade at the bottom. It was located below other debris that dated to the early-to-mid 1800s so I guess the shovel dates to that general period. We then moved on to an adjacent spot in the field, and started digging some huge musketballs and a couple of flat buttons. In spite of quickly finding a relic-rich area and hunkering down there, we decided to continue exploring the property in search of the suspected CW camp. But as we rounded the bend to the first alcove we unexpectedly ran into a nice little colonial house site, and dug buttons, buckle pieces, and other period items including a huge 38mm decorated flat button I was able to recover. It's the exact same size as a silver dollar. Again, we decided to leave that productive area to continue the scouting trip. Probably 300-400 yards away we ran into yet another area that started producing a smattering of early colonial relics although we could not find the iron patch. In the adjacent ravine Evan was digging loads of melted lead and small brass when suddenly a half reale appeared. On the nearby plateau I dug a colonial hoe, a cool looking star-shaped leather adornment, and eyeballed 2 pipe stems with huge bores which date to the 1600s. We left that spot after about 45 min and went wandering a bit more before running out of time.
The group shot below shows my keepers from the 4 days of hunting with Evan, and include the ones I posted last Thurs. Guess I could use a short break before catching up on some work around the house, but hopefully I can get out again before the end of the week. And again, I want to thank all my buddies for the fun times we had over the last few days.
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